One Piece: King's Road
by Shaggy Rower
Summary: Join Gerardo Macbeth, a young pirate with an adventurous spirit and a dream to become king of the pirates, as he sets sail on a journey through the grand line in search of One Piece. The road is fraught with danger as marines, rival pirates and all manner of enemies stand in his way, but with his loyal crew of friends besides him he'll fight to achieve his dream or die trying.
1. Chapter 1: Start of a destiny

_Hello there :)_

 _Welcome to my One Piece fic. I've had this story brewing in my head for years now, and have a whopping three whole saga's worth of adventures in store, however I have only recently been inspired to bring my own project to life. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with this project long enough to see those first three saga's become a reality, and I hope you'll enjoy reading through all the adventures I have in store for my characters._

 _On that note this fic will star a cast completely of my own making, in fact 99.99% of all characters, locations and the like are all of my own devising. Obviously the rules and facts of the world Eiichiro Oda's brilliant mind has created will be the same, so I will not do anything to that goes against that, but the world of One Piece is a constantly expanding world of mystery and adventure, and I hope that there is a place for my fic in it. Some of his characters will be mentioned in passing or, in vary rare scenario's, interacted with, but they will never be main characters and I will do my utmost to keep them in character. I will do all I can to keep my story from classing with cannon, but please don't blame me if something I create is later found to be impossible as One Piece continues (e.g. If I give a character a devil fruit that appears later in the One Piece Manga and don't kill them off.)_

 _I also am not Japanese, and would be lying if I said I knew enough about their language and culture to use in my fic. I will be using the english translations for everything and will not include honorifics or other such cultural things in this story since I'll probably get them wrong._

 _Keep in mind that I am but a single man, I have a pretty busy life right now and cannot work on this fic all day every day. However I do not want to leave anyone waiting for an unspecified amount of time on any major cliffhangers. Therefore since the first few story arcs are pretty short I will only upload the first chapter of a new arc once the whole arc is finished, and will upload a new chapter every day until it's conclusion. This may not work any more as the arcs get longer but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I also may make spelling or grammar mistakes that I missed after proof reading, so if you spot any I'd appreciate it if you messaged me pointing it out so I can correct it. I would also love to hear what you like about my story and any constructive criticism you may have._

 _This story is set just after the war of the best, and so as much as I love the strawhats they wont be in my story. This will follow a crew of my own making as they take their own route along the grand line in search of one piece. I hope you enjoy :)_

 _Disclaimer: I am not a rich, 40 year old Japanese man who owns an incredibly successful manga series, I am a poor student from Britain who doesn't even study English. One Piece is property of Eiichiro Oda and it is only with his good grace that a Japanese legal team is not currently trying to sue my ass._

* * *

A single _italicised_ word, ALL CAPITAL word or **bold** word is used for emphasis.

 _"Italicised speech represents thoughts."_

 _An italicised sentence is a dream, flashback or other mental scene._

"CAPITALS REPRESENTS SHOUTING!"

 **"Bold speech"** is the name of an attack.

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 **Start of a destiny! The man from the shipwreck.**

* * *

"Get moving slave!"

With a crack like thunder, the whip thrashed down on to the old man's back. He let out a gasp of pain and fell to the ground as his knees buckled from underneath him, grasping at the wound on his back where the long, thin cut was bleeding heavily into the dirty rags he was dressed in.

"I said get moving!" the guard yelled, bringing another lash down upon him and drawing out another cry of pain. "Honestly, you slaves are so damn lazy. When I say get to work you get to work!"

This was Sanning Quarry, a small island in the south blue that served to produce a small percentage of the stone being used to create the great bridge Tequila Wolf on the world government's behest. Despite slavery being officially outlawed, Sanning Quarry was entirely populated by slaves bought by world government agents and guards hired by them to keep them working. A fair amount of money went into keeping knowledge of this island, and the many others like it across the world, hidden from the general public, but that amount was a fraction of what the cost would have been if the world government had to buy all the stone required legally.

Slavery was the cheaper option.

The guard, dressed in the same grey suit and cap as the many others on the island, brought another strike down onto the slave before him, and with a sickening cracking sound the old man collapsed, unconscious.

"What? It's gone down already?" the guard sneered. "Typical slaves, taking naps every chance they get. Oi, you there!" he gestured at a nearby slave; a young boy no older than ten with frizzy orange hair that covered most of his face. "Get this lazy beast out here; I've got better things to do than stand around here all day.

"R-right away sir!" the boy whimpered, running over to the old slave's side. He slung the old man's arm around his shoulders and lifted with all the force he could muster, allowing him to slowly drag the older slave away. After a few more minutes of dragging his fellow slave through the dirt, the boy reached a group of large brown tents and hauled the injured slave outside the one with a hospital sign on it.

"Elder 1? Elder 1? Are you in here?" the boy called.

"Coming 209. What's the problem?" replied a frail voice. Seconds later the curtains parted and a small, wrinkly old man stepped out. He had a bald head, but more than made up for the missing hair with his thick, bushy white eyebrows and long white beard that curled around to the left in a spiral shape. "Oh dear," he sighed, noticing the injured slave 209 had brought with him. "Set him down on a free bed, I'll get him patched up immediately."

A few seconds later the injured slave was lying on one of the thin, dirty mattresses neatly arranged around the tent. 209 lifted up the slave's arm as Elder 1 finished wrapping a length of bandages around his torso. "There we go, all done," Elder 1 said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "He'll need to stay here for quite a while, but he'll live."

209 gave a small smile and made to leave, however Elder 1 put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "And what about you?" he asked, eying the way 209's knees quivered slightly. "Pulling a grown man is a tiring job, especially for a boy. You ought to rest for a while."

209 fidgeted uncomfortably under his gaze. "But Elder 1, if the guards catch me slacking off they'll punish me."

Elder 1 frowned. "Aye, that's true." He muttered, then a lightbulb went off over his head. "I know, why don't you go down to the edge of the island, near the ocean? The guards never patrol that far out and they won't be able to see you from the guard tower. If anyone comes asking where you are, I'll tell them I sent you to Alpha or Beta camp to get some more bandages."

"A-are you sure?" 209 asked, looking down at his feet. "I don't want you to get into trouble for lying for me."

"It's fine, it's fine." Elder 1 insisted, giving 209 a gentle push on the back. "You've been working hard today, you deserve a little rest."

* * *

Keeping on the lookout for guards, 209 made his way to the edge of the island. Unlike the rest of Sanning Quarry, which was nothing but solid stone, the waves had eroded away at the ends of the island enough to make a small ring of pebble beach. Making sure to sit near a rock he could hide behind in case a guard showed up, 209 gave a little breath of relief at taking some weight off his aching legs.

He sat there for a while, gazing out at the endless stretch of blue before him. _"I wonder what's going on in the world outside?"_ he thought to himself. _"I wonder if anyone even knows we're here?"_

He idly grabbed a flat pebble a tried to skim it along the water, but only succeeded in making it plop against an incoming wave. _"I wonder if mom and dad are thinking about me?"_

Just then he noticed a dark shape on the horizon, a tiny smudge of black in a picture of endless blue. It was too far away for 209 to make out, but it grew bigger every second.

" _What is that?"_ he thought. _"Is it coming closer?"_

Slowly but surely the smudge started to form into a shape. The bottom part of it was long and flat, whilst the top half appeared to be some kind of lump with four long things attached to it. As it came closer and closer it became more defined, turning into an increasingly familiar shape. Colours started to fade into it; a lot of brown, a lot of blue, and some sort of tanned white colour. With a growing sense of horror, 209 started to recognise the shape.

"Is that a- a person!" he cried.

The shape did indeed appear to be some kind of person, a man by the looks of it, lying still on top of a large plank of wood. The tide was gently bringing him towards the beach, and when it came close enough 209 rushed into the water and dragged him back onto the beach. Once they were both safely out the water 209 dropped to his knees, panting heavily from the effort it had taken, then looked over at the person he'd rescued.

He was definitely a man, probably in his early twenties by the looks of him. He was fairly tall with a toned, muscular build and lightly tanned skin. Despite being soaking wet his messy, medium length hair was spiking up and was a very dark shade of brown, almost black, except for a thin bright red streak above his right eye. He had quite sharp feature, and around his mouth was a well-trimmed black goatee.

Miraculously his clothes seemed to be undamaged, if not quite a bit wet. He was wearing a black tank top with a red line down the left side underneath a sleeveless brown jacket with a white fur lined collar. He had (probably intentionally) ripped blue jeans with a small gold chain dangling from the left pocket and a pair of black boots. He also had a tattoo on his upper right arm of a very detailed looking holy cross.

"H-hey, hey mister! Are you alive?" 209 asked as he started shaking the man. When he got no response, 209 put his ear to his chest above his heart. "He has a heartbeat," he stated, moving his hand to hover above the man's mouth, "and he's breathing normally too. I guess he's just unconscious." He then put a hand on the man's wrist, and frowned at how cold he felt. "But he's been in the water far too long; he might have hypothermia or something."

He tried shaking the man again, but he stranger showed no signs of waking. _"I can't leave him here, he'll freeze to death"_ 209 though. So, just as he'd done with the old man earlier, he slung the stranger's arm around his shoulders and started to drag him back to the medical tent.

* * *

It took a great deal more time and effort to get the drifter to the camp since his muscle mass made him far heavier than the old man, and when 209 finally reached the tent his breath was ragged and his face covered in sweat. With a last grunt of effort 209 pulled the stranger inside and called out for Elder 1.

"Hmm, back already? What's the ma-," Elder 1 paused mid-sentence as he spotted the unconscious man, and instantly ran over to help 209 bear the weight. He guided him over to a free bed and set him down, then grabbed a pile of mucky blankets from the corner and threw them on top of the stranger.

"We need to get him warmed up immediately," Elder 1 muttered loudly, a note of worry in his voice. "There don't seem to be any physical signs of damage on him, but his temperature is way below normal. If we don't heat him up soon it may prove too much for him, heck it's a miracle he's alive in this state as it is."

"W-what can I do to help?" 209 asked between breaths, trying to ignore how shaky his legs felt.

Elder 1 gave him a proper look over and frowned. "You sit down a rest for a bit" he said, holding up a hand to cut off 209 when he opened his mouth to protest. "We don't have anything other than these blankets to help him warm up right now, but if he catches a cold soon, which is very likely I might add, I'll need you to run over to the guard tower and ask for some medicine, and you can't do that when to look like you'll keel over at any minute."

Reluctantly, 209 sat down on the nearest bed and waited patiently from his strength to come back. As time went by other slaves came in one by one for one reason or another, and after seeing the outsider they began to crowd around him, watching him with interest until there was a small circle of people surrounding the sleeping man's bed.

As the sun went down and the island grew dark, Elder 1 took one of the man's arms out from the pile of blankets and wrapped a hand around the wrist. A look of relief washed over his face, and he turned to 209 with a small but heartfelt smile. "His body temperature's returned to normal, and he seems just fine. There are probably a few internal injuries or some minor brain damage, but his breathing shows that his condition is stable so I have no doubt he'll live. It's a good thing this lad's so solidly built, I doubt many other men would be in as good a condition as he is."

"Thank goodness" 209 whispered happily as the other slaves around him mumbled in relief to each other. Suddenly a loud cracking sound made everyone jump, and they all turned to the front of the tent where three guards were waiting.

All three of them wore the standard grey suits, and two of them had their grey caps pulled low over their faces so the shadows hid their eyes. The man in the middle, however, had a similarly grey coloured jacket over his suit and had his greasy black hair slicked back over his head. He was a thin, lanky man with a deathly pale complexion, a hooked nose and beady grey eyes that looked at the assembled slaves with a mixture of malice and revulsion.

"Vice-warden Skarringrove, what are you doing here?" Elder 1 gasped.

Skarringrove stepped forwards, a cruel smirk plastered on his face. "Have you forgotten already slave number 1?" he asked in a mock innocent tone. "Tonight's the weekly inspection for Charlie camp. I was planning on having you monkeys dance for a while to test your physical fitness, and yet here I find you all crowded around in a circle as if you're planning something."

He peered into the circle, and a grimace crossed his face as he noticed the sleeping stranger. "What's this? A slave sleeping before rest hours?" He walked towards the crowd and cracked his whip to make the slaves back away. "Well we can't have that can we?" he said, raising his foot to stomp on the man's head. "Guess I'd better wake him up."

"No wait! He's not a slave!" Elder 1 cried. "He's suffered extreme hypothermia and may have terrible internal injuries! If you attack him now it may well kill him!"

"Shut up slave!" Skarringrove snapped. "If he was a guard I'd know him, and the only other things on this rock besides guards are slaves. Perhaps I'll have to punish you for lying once I'm done with this one."

"No! Stop!" 209 cried as Skarringrove brought his heel down towards the stranger. However inches before the boot hit him a hand shot out and caught it.

"Huh! What the-," Skarringrove cried, and tried to move his foot back, only to find it stuck in the hand's vice-like grip. The stranger stirred slightly, slowly opening his eyelids to show a pair of big, bright green eyes that looked blearily at the roof of the tent. The stranger sat up, yawned, and stretched up with both arms, not seeming to notice how that action lifted Skarringrove into the air as if he were a feather.

"What's all the commotion about?" he asked tiredly, rubbing sleep out of his eyes with his free hand without noticing the shocked expression the others wore at his inhuman act of strength. He looked around at his surroundings with half squinted eyes, roaming over the gaping faces of the slaves before eventually coming to rest on Skarringrove, still precariously perched on his hand.

The stunned silence continued as the stranger stared at Skarringrove with a blank expression. Then slowly his face turned into a confused frown.

"What do you think you're doing balancing on top of my hand?" he asked.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO LIFTED ME UP, YOU IDIOT!" Skarringrove snapped. The act caused him to lose his balance, and Skarringrove fell backwards on to the floor with a girly scream, his foot still caught it the stranger's hand.

"Vice-warden Skarringrove!" the other two guards shouted, grabbing their whips out their belts. "Bastard! What do you think you're doing to the vice-warden!" one of them yelled.

"No no, this is all a misunderstanding," the stranger replied calmly, standing up to let the blankets fall off his body. "See I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when suddenly this guy comes along and tries to balance on my hand."

"DON'T LIE TO US! WE WERE WATCHING DUMBASS!" the other guard shouted. He swiped his hand and sent his whip hurtling towards the strangers face.

Instantly the strangers eyes narrowed, and he moved to the side to let the whip fly past him. He charged at the guards, Skarringrove still in hand, and, with a move as if he was using a baseball bat, swung the Vice-warden at the attacking guard with incredible strength so that their heads connected with a satisfying 'thunk'. The two now unconscious men went flying into the corner of the tent, and as the remaining guard moved to make a strike the stranger twisted round and delivered a powerful sidekick to his face, sending him cartwheeling through the air until he landed on top of the other two men in a messy little pile.

"W-who are you?" 209 asked as the other slaves stared at the fallen guards with an expression of awe.

The stranger turned to face him, his green eyes fully awake and full of excitement. "Who, me?" he replied, a wide, happy smile spreading across his face.

"I'm Gerardo, Gerardo Macbeth. The future king of the pirates."

* * *

 _Woot. Gerardo Macbeth takes the stage. This is the guy who'll be at the heart of all my adventures to come._

 **Fun Fact:** Gerardo loves spicy food, the hotter the better. The horrors this diet has inflicted on his digestive system can only be guessed at.


	2. Chapter 2: Gerardo storms the tower

_The next chapter is up and out (cue fanfare). I was a little worried that my eagerness to get this first arc out may have resulted in this being a little rushed, but I hope you all still find it a good read._

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

 **Gerardo storms the tower. No such thing as a hopeless place!**

* * *

"I'm Gerardo, Gerardo Macbeth. The future king of the pirates!"

The slaves stared wide-eyed at Gerardo, taken aback by his unexpected remark. "P-pirate king? You're a pirate?" 209 exclaimed.

"That's right!" Gerardo replied, his grin stretching even wider. "But more importantly," he looked around the tent with a confused expression, "where the hell am I?"

"This is Sanning Quarry," Elder 1 said, breaking out of his awestruck daze. "209 here found you unconscious on a piece of driftwood and brought you to this here medical tent."

"How did you end up in the water anyway? Did your boat crash?" 209 asked.

Gerardo grinned goofily. "I dunno, I was asleep."

"YOU SLEPT THROUGH A SHIP CRASH!" 209 exclaimed, causing Gerardo to break out into laughter.

By now the other slaves had broken out of their shock and were muttering amongst themselves, shooting Gerardo and the unconscious guards fearful looks. Noticing this, Gerardo stopped laughing and tilted his head in a confused manner. "Hm? What's the matter with everyone?"

"They're afraid," Elder 1 replied, his tone betraying that he was as well. "You just attacked the vice-warden and two of his guards, there's sure to be retribution for this once Warden Mercet finds out."

"Oh I see." Gerardo looked at the unconscious pile of guards, and then at the pile of dirty blankets. A flash of mischief danced through his eyes, and within seconds the guards were bound and gagged, and Gerardo was pulling the remaining blankets over them to hide them from view. "There we go, that ought to hide them for a while."

"Ah! Mr Gerardo! What are you doing?!" 209 cried, running over to him. "You can't do that to the guards, it's illegal."

"It isn't illegal if no-one finds out." Gerardo said rather ominously. "Besides, it was me who beat them up, there's no reason why they'd punish you guys."

209 shuffled uncomfortably and stared down at his feet. "They don't need a reason," he muttered, "We're slaves; they can do anything they want to us if the mood strikes them."

"Slaves!" Gerardo looked at the small crowd again with a look of pity on his face. "I see."

"You should go now," 209 continued. "There's a dock on the west side of the island. There are a few guards there, but with your strength I'm sure you could beat them up and make a run for it. Don't worry about us, we may be punished but it's nothing we haven't handled before, so you sh-"

"Tell me, do you want to be free?"

"Huh?" 209 gasped, looking up to find Gerardo staring at him with a deadly serious expression. "W-what do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what you think I mean." Gerardo replied instantly. "Do you want to be free? Because if you do, I'll free you."

209 stared at him, his face frozen in shock, before he caught himself and shook his head. "Don't joke about that. The marines would never let you-"

"I'm a pirate kid, I don't give a damn about what the marines think." He reached out his hand towards 209. "The only law I live by is my own, and in my book all of you deserve the right to complete freedom. So what d'ya say? Wanna get outta here?"

209 froze. It was impossible, he thought, for Gerardo to free him. There were hundreds of guards on this island, and although the pirate seemed strong enough to make a dash for the docks on his own, if he had to wait for and protect 209 they'd surely both be caught.

And yet he looked so sincere, so sure of himself, standing there with an outstretched hand, as if he hadn't just offered a boy he'd just met his heart's desire. What if he could? What if he really could take on the entire island? What if-

"That's enough!"

209 jumped as the shout came from right behind him, and turned to see Elder 1, looking absolutely livid, stride forward and smack Gerardo's hand away. "Shame on you pirate!" he yelled. "Shame on you for being so cruel!"

"What the hell are you talking about old man?" Gerardo snapped as he retracted his hand. "I'm trying to help h-"

"How dare you try to give a child hope in a hopeless place!"

Gerardo's eye widened, and he recoiled as if he'd been slapped, but Elder 1 took some more steps forwards so that he was face-to-face with him. "The thing about hope pirate," he spat, "is that it makes people dream of better things, makes them dream that there's something waiting for them somewhere. But in a place like this, where there's no escape, where there's no way to reach those better things, those dreams only cause pain." His anger evaporated, and the distraught face of a man who's given up was all that remained. "If you give something like that to a child it'll break them, and I won't stand by and let you break this boy."

For a minute there was nothing but silence. The slaves all looked down; their bowed heads a silent agreement with Elder 1's words. 209 stood completely still, doing nothing as the tiny spark of hope that'd just been lit inside him flickered back into oblivion.

"I see." Gerardo eventually said. Without a word he turned and made to exit the tent. But as he pulled back the curtain to the outside he paused. "I wish I could get this across to you with words, but it seems like you're too far gone for that. I guess I'll have to use action then to prove to you-," he turned his head, and fixed the assembled slaves with a fierce glare, "that there's no such thing as a hopeless place!"

* * *

Outside of the guard tower two guards leaned lazily on the wall besides the door and gazed up at the dark, cloudy sky above them.

"It's so damn boring round here," one of the guards moaned. "I wish something exciting would happen for once."

The other guard took a deep swig from a bottle of beer. "Then ya chose the wrong job bud. Guarding slaves is just like farming animals, except animals can't talk back to ya."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

The second guard took another swig of beer, and the first one raised an eyebrow at him. "You sure you should be doing that? You know what the warden's like on drinking on the job."

"He's down at the docks tonight with the elite guard, organising the next shipment of stone. Skarringrove's in charge."

"Speaking of which, is that him coming back now?"

"Nah Skarringrove's got to reason to be running like that. Who is that?"

The man running towards them in the darkness was getting closer and closer, and as his clothes came into view it was clear he was neither guard nor slave. "Halt!" one of the guards said as they drew their whips, "what're you-".

Suddenly the man burst forwards as if shot out of a cannon. Before the guards had a chance to react he'd grabbed both of their faces and, with a mighty roar, slammed them both into the door, causing it to break off its hinges and fall down with a loud thud. On the other side of the door five guards whipped around in horror to see the fallen doors, each with an unconscious guard lying on top of it, and a man with a red stripe in his hair standing in the wreckage with anger blazing in his bright green eyes.

"Knock knock." Gerardo said, cracking his knuckles.

The closest guard drew his whip and flicked it at Gerardo, but with practised ease the pirate caught the end of the whip and gave it a sharp tug, causing the unlucky guard to come flying towards him. When he came close enough Gerardo raised his arm and delivered a powerful hammer blow down into the guard's stomach, sending his crashing to the floor.

"Eek!" one of the guards screamed. "Sound the alarm, we need backup."

"Idiot!" shouted another. "It's just one man. We can't call for help against a single guy, get him!"

Two of the guards charged at him barehanded, whilst the other two grabbed a cutlass each from a nearby weapon rack and circled around him. Gerardo assumed a boxing stance, and as soon as the first barehanded guard came in range he leapt forwards and delivered a hard punch to the cheek, knocking the guy out and sending a few of his teeth skittering along the floor. The second one went for a kick, but Gerardo dropped low and swept the guards other leg out from under him. As the guard fell Gerardo rolled forwards and brought his heel down on the man's stomach in a savage axe kick. By now the cutlass-wielding guards were on either side of him, and as one they stabbed their blades down at him, but Gerardo pushed off the ground with his hands and, whilst upside down, kicked out with both legs and hit both guards square in the face. As they fell to the floor Gerardo landed in a crouched position and stood up to admire his handiwork.

"This is too easy. I won't even need to use _that_ if things keep going at this rate."

He looked around at the inside of the tower, a rather plain looking circular building with white stone walls and a grey tiled floor. Other than a few weapon racks and odd crates the only thing on note was a large spiral staircase leading to the floor above.

"Hmm, should I do _it_ down here, or at the top?" he wondered. "It'd be easier to do it here. But if I fought my way to the top and did it there it'd look way cooler." He nudged one of the unconscious guards with his foot. "It's not like these guys are any hassle, suppose I'd better make a show of it."

* * *

At the top floor of the tower eight guards sat around a table playing poker. It was a very tense game, and all of them sat in complete silence as they each made their moves.

Suddenly the sound of raised voices and scuffling could be heard faintly from bellow them. One of them tsked in annoyance, but otherwise they all tried their best to block to noise out. Slowly but surely however the noise came closer and closer, and became harder and harder to ignore.

"The hell's going on down there?" one of the guards said, and walked over to the door. No sooner had he touched the door handle though the door came flying open, smacking the guard to the floor as a bunch of guards came flying through it like skittles. Gerardo casually walked over the pile of guards, brushing a speck of dust off his shoulder as he regarded the guards with a cocky grin.

"Bastard! Who the hell are you?" one of the guards shouted as they all scrambled to their feet and drew their weapons.

"I'm Gerardo, future king of the pirates. And you-" he replied, stepping back into his fighting stance, "are the last seven guards still conscious in this tower."

With a war cry the guards charged him, and the closest one swung his cutlass at him. Gerardo elbowed the side of the blade with his right arm to deflect it and smacked the attacker square in the face with his left, then kicked him in the chest so he stumbled backwards directly into two other guards and brought them to the floor with him. Another one came at him from the side and swung a katana at his neck, so Gerardo ducked underneath it, rolled towards him and leapt up, bringing a strong right hook into the guy's chin. Across the room Gerardo noticed a man reading a pistol to fire, so he charged at him, jumping off the faces of the two men trying to stand up and launching a flying roundhouse kick to the guard's temple as he brought the pistol up.

Two guards remained conscious now, and as one of them tried to punch him with a terrified sounding war cry Gerardo stepped forwards, bringing the guard face-to-face with him, and head-butted him in the nose. The guard went down, and the final one gave a girly scream as he dropped his whip on the floor, backing away with trembling knees.

"M-m-m-monster! You're monster!" he cried.

"That's right." Gerardo replied coolly, casually stepping forward until he was in the exact centre of the room. "And this monster suggests you run if you want to make it out of this unharmed."

"W-w-what are y-you gonna do?" the terrified guard asked, he tried to back away some more but his weak knees gave out from under him.

Gerardo stretched both arms out on either side of him and closed his eyes, a look of concentration on his face. "I'm gonna blow up the top of this tower." He replied calmly.

The guard tried to laugh, but it came out as a squeaky whimper. "B-blow up the tower? How are you gonna do that?"

Gerardo took a deep breath in and a deep breath out, then suddenly his eyes snapped open.

" **Power Blast!"**

* * *

Throughout Sanning Quarry many slaves were asleep in their beds, making the most of their short rest period, when suddenly a loud booming sound accompanied by a small shockwave woke them all up with a start.

"What on earth was that!? An earthquake?" 209 exclaimed as he shot up from his bed. Along with the rest of the slaves, he headed outside to see what had caused to noise and almost had a heart attack from what he saw.

The top floor of the guard tower was in ruins, with most of the rubble and quite a few guards having been blasted down to the ground. At the top of the tower stood a familiar figure, illuminated by the orange glows of the morning sun as it appeared on the horizon.

"People of Sanning Quarry!" Gerardo shouted, his voice loud and clear even over the shocked murmurings of the assembled crowd. "I know that many of you have resigned yourselves to your fate, given up on your freedom under the belief that this is a hopeless place!" His voice took on a harder edge, "But let me tell you now, there is no such thing as a hopeless place, there never will be. As long as you live you have a choice, you can choose to chase after your dreams no matter the cost. Right here, right now I'm asking you to make that choice. You can choose to do nothing and waste your lives away, or you can choose to follow me, and take back your freedom with your own hands!"

He raised his arm into the air, the sunrise breaking behind him.

"Who's with me!"

* * *

 _I tried to make Gerardo's fighting style comes across as a fierce, brutal style that focuses on overwhelming strength and defence rather than reflexes. Gerardo is more of a heavy hitter sort of fighter._

 _Also it's pretty clear right now that Gerardo has some kind of power. Any guesses as to what it might be yet?_

 **Fun Fact:** The red stripe in Gerardo's hair isn't dyed, it's genetic. He is not in any way related to red haired shanks though, so don't go guessing his back story thinking that.


	3. Chapter 3: 209's desperate plea

_I've been asked why the picture of Gerardo in the wanted poster I use as the cover image doesn't quite match up to my description of him. Well the reason is simple, I didn't draw that picture, I used an anime avatar building game to make it that didn't have the option for spiky hair or red stripes in it. Of course many of the people on this wonderful site happen to be exceptional artists, so If any of you feel like drawing a picture of Gerardo the better fits the description and send it to me I would be eternally grateful. My own drawing skills are terrible._

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 **209's desperate plea. Rebellion at Sanning Quarry.**

* * *

"Who's with me?"

Time seemed to have frozen. Nobody moved, blinked or even made a sound. Witnessing such an incredible act and then hearing that passionate speech had left them stunned into silence, their brains unable to process what had just happened.

The silence hung in the air for what felt like hours, but was in fact closer to seconds, before a single horrified voice spoke up.

"What have you done?"

All eyes turned to the speaker, Elder 1, whose stunned expression was morphing into one of anger.

"You idiot! You've doomed us all!" he cried. "I already told you there is no hope for us! The fight you ask us to follow you into is one we cannot win! And this," he gestured to the destroyed tower, "will to nothing but bring down the wrath of our owners upon us! Do you know the kind of punishment we'll receive for this! How many of us are going to die because of this! All you've done is brought doom upon us."

Those words filled the blank minds of the others with one thought, the fear of punishment. As the fear built up inside of them it turned into anger directed at the one they could target it on.

"He's right, you've signed our death sentences you monster!" one of them shouted.

"Why did you do this? Why torment us like this!" another cried.

In seconds the crown had turned into an angry mob, hurling insults and stones up at Gerardo.

"Uh oh, that didn't go as planned." Gerardo muttered to himself, slightly panicking as he looked down at the raging slaves. "Damn it, how do I go about fixing this?"

"Go back to where you came from!"

"Leave us alone monster!"

"We don't want your help!"

"ENOUGH!" rang a loud, young voice that cut through the angry din like a knife. All eyes turned to the source, a small boy with frizzy orange hair.

"ENOUGH WITH THE FEAR ALREADY!" 209 yelled again. He paused for a second to catch his breath. Then, with his eyes showing from underneath his hair for once, he stared fiercely at the surrounding crowd. "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU ALL? HOW CAN YOU ALL LET A CHANCE LIKE THIS SLIP BY YOU?"

Some of the slaves looked at each other in confusion, and Elder 1 made to put a hand on his shoulder but 209 shrugged him off. "I-I have been here for half my life, waiting for a chance to get out of here, to be free again. And now someone strong enough to destroy a whole tower single handed has come along, offering to free us and you're all trying to push him away!"

"209," Elder 1 hissed. "You need to…"

"MY NAME ISN'T 209!" he screamed. "IT NEVER WAS! THAT'S JUST THE NUMBER THEY GAVE ME WHEN THEY BROUGHT ME HERE. BUT I HAVE A NAME, A REAL NAME!"

All attention was on the young boy as his anger deflated, replaced by the innocent sadness only found in a child. "It's Hamlin," he croaked. "My name is Hamlin. It's the name my parents gave me, and I want to see them again. So please," he fell to his knees, tears falling gently down his face, "let me go back to them. Let me go home again."

Guilt washed over the crowd, making each of them lower their heads in shame. The heartfelt plea of a young boy had smothered their fearful rage. For a minute all was silent, until a single slave stepped forwards from the crowd.

"I am with you!"

A flush of excitement ran through the crowd, and before it could fade a young lady stepped forward as well.

"So am I!"

"And me!" shouted a slave.

"Me too!" cried another.

Suddenly all hell broke loose, with all the assembled slaves shouting over each over to voice their support. Their shouts turned into a loud repeated chant of "Freedom! Freedom!", and broke into a voracious round of cheering as Gerardo raised a fist into the air.

"Then grab rocks, spades, pickaxes, whatever you can find that you can fight with. Let's storm the docks and grab the next ship out of here!"

The slaves gave a raging war cry and went to grab whatever weapons they could find. Gerardo ran back down the tower as fast as he could and, upon spotting Hamlin waiting in the same spot, approached him with a wide grin.

"Thank you Hamlin. I was worried for a second there, but you turned everything around. Good job."

Hamlin shook his head, a few tears still in the corners of his eyes. "No, thank you for starting all of this in the first place." He chuckled gently, "Still, I can't believe you actually managed to destroy the tower on your own. How did you manage?"

Gerardo shot him a sharp toothed grin. "It was pretty easy actually. You see I'm a-"

"Pirate sir!"

Gerardo was cut off as the slaves returned, each wielding some kind of weapon and radiating so much energy that their eyes seemed to be glowing slightly. "Everyone able to fight is armed and ready."

Beside him Hamlin grabbed a shovel offered to him and swung it like a sword. "We'll follow your lead."

"Excellent," replied Gerardo, turning to look at the docks. "In that case…"

He ran forward, each and every slave instantly hot on his heels. "CHARGE!"

* * *

Warden Mercet had had a good career.

He'd become a slave guard quite young after failing his marine entrance test due to what his instructor liked to call a 'blatant disregard to the concept of friendly fire.' His harsh and downright tyrannical methods of punishing slaves had instilled a strong fear in the other slaves he was assigned to watch and had increased productivity significantly overnight, and had given rise to his nickname 'Electric Eel' Mercet. He had advanced quickly up the career ladder with no signs of problems, and had turned Sanning Quarry into a much more cost efficient camp after his brilliant initiative to save costs on the slave's food by replacing most of the meat they got with the waste dirt they dug up. "Mud is full of minerals, I'm sure they'll be better off for it" he'd said.

It was thought by many, himself included, that Mercet would be promoted to a taskmaster for the celestial dragons next year. He might even be assigned to Mariejois itself.

And yet as one of his guards reported that out of nowhere his guard tower had been destroyed and his slaves were revolting, Mercet could almost physically see that promotion flying out the window of the dock they were in.

"Apparently the one who blew up the tower is dressed differently, so probably isn't a slave, and is rallying the slaves to arms as we speak." The guard finished.

"I see." Mercet replied in a low, dangerous tone. The guard instinctively took a step back in fear, Mercet's hulking, muscular form and cropped blonde hair gave him a very thug like appearance that would have been intimidating enough without his grizzly voice. "I'll have Skarringrove's head for this, I leave him alone for one day and he lets some renegade pirate screw up my whole chance for a promotion."

Suddenly another guard burst through the door, his face filled with alarm. "Sir, it's an emergency! The slaves are charging towards us. What do we do?"

Mercet scowled, making both guards take another step back. "Then they're about to find out that the elite guards are made up of sterner stuff than the rest of the cannon fodder. This dock is the only way off the island, so as long as we hold this position we'll have all the time in the world to beat them back down into submission again. Have all guards stationed by the doors and windows to nullify the advantage their superior numbers give them. I'll stand by the main doors myself and make a show of humiliating nine or ten of them to dash their spirits."

He drew a long black whip from his belt, then flicked a switch on the handle which made the whip produce a low humming sound. He gave it a fierce crack, and as the whip struck the floor there was a brief flash of blue light that made one of the guards jump into the others arms.

"Time to remind the animals not to bite the hand that strangles them!" he growled.

* * *

With a ferocious roar the stampede of slaves descended on the dock and all hell broke loose. The sheer numbers and force of will of the slaves was like an avalanche, and if the guards weren't able to hold their defensive position inside the dock thanks to the range of their whips they would have been overwhelmed in seconds. Amidst the chaos Gerardo watched as yet another wave of slaves was forced back as guards on the roof lashed down upon them.

"This isn't good. These guys are better trained than the others." He muttered. "If this keeps up we'll tire ourselves out, and then we'll have no chance of winning. Should I punch a few holes in the wall?"

No sooner had he said that than the main doors of the dock, which had been heavily barricaded from the first wave of attacks, swung open with enough force to push the slaves pounding on it to the ground. As they began to stand up again a pitch black whip thrashed out of the darkness behind it like a snake and struck them, causing the slaves to suddenly convulse violently and collapse.

Mercet emerged from the darkness, a scowl etched onto his face as he swung his strange black whip through the air. Another wave off slaves charged at him, but with practised ease he cracked his whip towards them and sent them all convulsing down to the ground the second the whip struck them.

"Come on then you maggots!" Mercet cried as he stepped on top of one of the fallen slaves. "The door to your freedom is right behind me. If any of you think you're good enough to get through me go ahead, see what happens!"

Two slaves ran at him from the crowd, but Mercet cracked his whip on the ground before them and laughed as they jumped back in fright. "What's the matter? Afraid? To think that I actually nearly believed you dogs might have a backbone between you when I heard about this little rebellion. Pathetic!"

The other slaves stayed back, fear freezing them to the floor, when suddenly a flash of orange shot out from amongst them straight at Mercet. With a determined cry Hamlin rushed at Mercet, shovel raised above his head to attack.

Mercet gave a feral grin as he noticed Hamlin's approach, and with a sharp crack of his whip he sent the shovel flying out of his hands, the shock of the attack making Hamlin stumble to the floor. "What's this? A puppy trying to go against its master?" he sneered, stepping forwards and waving his whip over his head as Hamlin scrambled backwards. "Looks like I need to remind you that it's the fate of a dog to stay kept on a leash."

Hamlin squeezed his eyes shut in fear as Mercet brought his whip snaking down towards him, waiting for the inevitable pain. However when it didn't come Hamlin slowly opened his eyes to find Gerardo standing above him, Mercet's whip coiled around his right arm.

"Looks like I need to beat some sense into an idiot who thinks he can treat human beings like animals." Gerardo snarled.

Mercet's grin melted into a scowl as he observed Gerardo's arm with notable confusion. "How are you still standing?" he growled. "This whip has 100,000 volts flowing through it, you should be twitching on the ground with the other slaves! How are you just standing there?"

Gerardo's only response was to shoot him a condescending grin. With a grunt of frustration Mercet tried to pull the whip back, but Gerardo grabbed it with his hand and held tight, stopping Mercet from recovering his weapon.

Suddenly the hilt of the whip started beeping, and Mercet looked down at it with confusion plastered all over his face. "The batteries are almost out? That can't be, I recharged it not two hours ago."

He flicked the switch into the off position, but the faint humming sound didn't stop. "What the hell? Why is it still going?" Unless…" He glared at Gerardo, "You! What are you doing? How are you doing this?"

Gerardo's grin grew wider, and suddenly a bolt of electricity shot from his hand up the whip. Mercet gave a cry of pain when the bolt reached the handle and it suddenly exploded in the warden's grip. As the warden clutched his hand Gerardo started to walk forwards, seemingly oblivious to the fearful glances Mercet was giving him.

"What the hell! What are you?" Mercet cried. When Gerardo continued to stay silent he took a few steps back, drawing a pistol out of his coat pocket as two guards came from the door on either side of him. "Shoot him!" Mercet howled, firing bullet after bullet at the advancing pirate as his guards did the same. However Gerardo didn't even move to avoid them. Everyone watched awestruck as the bullets hit Gerardo and fell to the ground without even penetrating his skin.

Yet what was the most incredible about it was how unnatural it looked. The bullets didn't bounce off or defect anywhere as if they'd hit a sheet of steel, they just seemed to lose all momentum and fall lazily to the floor the second they touched Gerardo.

Mercet made a strangled whelp of fear as Gerardo loomed closer and closer, the rain of bullets not even a mild annoyance to him. Suddenly he shot forward as if fired out of a cannon, and Mercet was able to react quickly enough to dodge backwards in the nick of time as Gerardo grabbed the heads of the guards by his side and slammed them together in the space where he had been.

"M-monster! You're some kind of monster!" he whimpered. "Why didn't my whip shock you? Why didn't those bullets harm you? Are you some kind of demon?"

"Close enough" Gerardo replied dismissively. "You see I ate one of the devil's fruit, the battery battery fruit, and became a man who can absorb all different forms of energy I touch. The electrical energy from your whip, the kinetic energy from those bullets, all you did was give me the power needed to finish this once and for all."

Gerardo raised his right arm, and suddenly electricity started to burst forth from it and wrap around it arm like a gauntlet of lightning. Mercet's eyes widened in fright as Gerardo glared at him, his face tinged with blue from the glow of the electricity swirling around his fist.

"No wait, get away from me!" Mercet screamed as Gerardo leapt towards him, his right arm pulled back.

"I think it's time you had a taste of your own medicine Mercet!" Gerardo shouted as he drew in range. **"Thunderstorm Bomb!"**

His right arm punched Mercet hard in the stomach, the electricity coursing from him into the warden. Mercet gave a wheezing sound as the punch lifted him of the floor and sent him flying, electricity still crackling around him, into a wall. The sounds of battle around the dock quickly faded as everyone stared wide-eyed at the defeated Warden.

Gerardo looked around, noting the fearful and resigned looks in the guard's eyes. He raised his arm triumphantly into the air.

"We've won!"

There was a second of silence, and then, as the guards dropped their weapons in resignation, the slaves altogether shouted a cry of happiness louder than thunder into the sky.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to come with me?"

It had been five hours since the end of the revolution, and the slaves were busying themselves loading the stone transport ship full of supplies for their journey around the world to each of their homes. Gerardo stood on the dock talking to Hamlin, who for the first time in many years was smiling, looking like the ten year old he was.

"I'm sure." Hamlin replied. "I want to go home again, and if you're determined to become the next king of the pirates you must be going after one piece in the grand line. That's way out of the way for me. Besides, I don't think your crew would like it if you just showed up and declared me a member of the crew without asking them first."

"Oh that's no problem," Gerardo said with a smile, "since I don't have any crew members yet."

Hamlin looked confused. "But you said you were sleeping on your ship when it crashed. Who was steering the ship."

"I was."

"You're not supposed to sleep at the wheel." Hamlin sweat-dropped.

There was silence for a second, and then the pair burst into a fit of giggles.

"Take care of yourself Hamlin." Gerardo said as his laughter subsided.

Hamlin nodded. "You too. And thank you so much for everything you've done for us."

With that Hamlin turned away and boarded the ship, waving goodbye to Gerardo before he disappeared below deck. Gerardo turned to walk away, but stopped as another figure approached him.

"There's a little ship at the end of the pier packed full of supplies for you. It seems like the least we could do after everything you've done for us." Elder 1 said, smiling gently.

"You don't have to do anything for me." Gerardo replied. "I did this purely because I felt like it. It's not like I feel so strongly about slavery that I want to join the revolutionary army, it's just that I happened to stumble across this place and didn't like how things were done here. Hell I doubt I'd have tried half as hard at this if I hadn't wanted to prove you wrong old man."

Elder 1 chuckled. "Bell. My name is Bell. And for the record I have never been so glad to have been wrong in my life. And I'm sorry that I ever made it harder for you."

Gerardo gave him a sharp toothed grin. "Not a problem Bell. See you around."

"Oh, one more thing," Bell said as Gerardo made to leave. "I couldn't help but overhear what you said to 20- Hamlin about your lack of a crew."

Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "What of it?"

Bell handed him a rolled up newspaper. "I found this whilst clearing out the ship. It's yesterday's local newspaper from Peaco island, an island about three days due west of here that the ship passes by on its delivery route which is home to the 42nd marine branch known as 'Tobiyo Base'."

Gerardo unfolder the newspaper and looked at the front page.

* * *

DANGEROUS CRIMINAL "TIO THE TRAITOR" TO AWAIT TRANSPORT TO IMPEL DOWN!

It was confirmed yesterday that the dangerous pirate "Tio the Traitor", possessing a bounty of 4,000,000 beli, was captured by hardworking marines after a fierce battle on Fangan Rock. Due to damage to their ship the crew, led by Lieutenant-Commander Trowl, requested the madman be held at Tobiyo base until more suitable transport arrives.

Tio has left a trail of victims all around south blue for over a year now, but was able to avoid capture until today. His incarceration at Impel Down will be a blessing for all who wish to live in a peaceful world.

* * *

Underneath this was a bounty picture of perhaps the most intimidating drawn picture of a person Gerardo could imagine. This 'Tio' was apparently completely bald with pointy ears, pitch black eyes and about thirty different scars dotted across his face. His teeth were all pointed like fangs and he appeared to have a large tattoo of a screaming skull on his neck.

"Well…isn't this guy quite the looker." Gerardo deadpanned. "Are you suggesting I recruit this guy into my crew?"

"It may be worth checking him out" Bell replied. "He's made out to be pretty strong after all."

Gerardo grinned at that. "True, and I'm only going to accept the strongest guys around into my crew. Guess my next stop is Peaco Island then."

"Goodbye then Gerardo," said Bell with a smile. "It has been a pleasure."

"Likewise." Gerardo replied. He turned around and, with a backwards wave of his hand, headed over to the little boat waiting for him.

"Tio the Traitor huh?" he muttered. Then he grinned, "This is going to be so much fun!"

* * *

Lieutenant-Commander Sanzel waited with his men at attention as a marine ship pulled into the harbour. Once the gangplank had been put down Sanzel and his men walked up to the deck.

"Lieutenant-Commander Trowl, my name is Lieutenant-Commander Sanzel. On behalf of Base Commander Tobias I am here to take the criminal Tio into our… custody?"

He stopped as he noticed the appearance of the crew. Each of them looked haggard, their clothes wrinkly and dirty, and their eyes highlighted by horrible looking black bags. Each of them looked dead on their feet, until he had said Tio's name, at which point they all stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to face him so quickly a few of them must have got whiplash.

"T-Tio! You're here to take Tio off us?" said one of the marines.

"Umm… that's right." Sanzel replied, unnerved by the way everyone's faces suddenly brightened up as he said it. One of the marines instantly grabbed him by the hand and briskly led him towards the brig of the ship.

"He's this way sir. You'd better be taking him now right?"

"Yes- I- Look what is going on here? Where is Lieutenant-Commander Trowl? Sanzel asked.

"He's in his quarters trying to cry himself to sleep. Not that it matters anymore." The marine replied as he dragged his superior towards the back end of the brig. Sanzel couldn't help but notice that the air seemed to feel just a little bit colder the closer they got to the only locked door, and the hairs on the back of his neck bristled uncomfortably.

The marine took out a key and clicked open the lock, pulling the door open to a completely dark room with the faint silhouette of a person sitting at the back of the room.

Sanzel peered inside for a while, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness. After a while he scoffed, "That's him? That's Tio the Traitor? Are you certain you have the right guys here; he's nothing like what I expected."

Suddenly the figure broke into laugher in a rich, silvery voice that Sanzel noticed made the nearby marine jump as if stung. The figure smirked, and Sanzel couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit of fear as a pair of bright blue eyes opened and fixed him with a stare.

"Tell me, Lieutenant-Commander," the figure said smoothly, each word perfectly pronounced. "Do you believe in ghosts?"

* * *

 _There we go. The first arc of One Piece: King's Road is finished._

 _So yeah Gerardo ate the battery battery fruit, and can enhance his attacks by adding energy adsorbed from things he touches. In case any of you are worried that this ability may make him a bit overpowered don't fret, this ability have 5 major drawbacks and weaknesses, not including loosing the ability to swim, which will be explained in the next arc._

 _Speaking of the next arc how to you like your teaser to Tio. Do you think he'll be the first to join Gerardo's crew? The next arc should be up in a few weeks, so see you then._

 **Fun Fact:** Warden Mercet and Vice-Warden Skarringrove where not only held fully accountable for the Sanning Quarry incident, they were made to pay each and every beli back.


	4. Chapter 4: The haunted prisoner

_My apologies dear readers. Though I said I'd be done in a few weeks I honestly didn't expect to take this long! I suddenly got 10,000 word essays dropped on me like bombshells, an immense number of hangovers from an immense number of parties and a stampede of plot bunnies for other shows! When I had the time and motivation to write it was to write something else, and though I hope I can stay focused on this baby I get the feeling it'll be trickier than I imagined._

 _I'm willing to commit seppuku if that'll make it up to you. But remember, if I do I won't be able to post any more chapters ever, so choose wisely. With that said enjoy the latest, and much longer, story arc._

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

 **The haunted prisoner. Chaos at Tobiyo Base!**

* * *

Peaco Island was a beautiful place. Built off of a rich fishing industry and housing the 42nd branch marine base "Tobiyo", Peaco had been safe and prosperous for longer than anyone could remember. Its cobbled streets were full of beautifully crafted stone houses decorated with colourful arrays of flowers, and those who lived there enjoyed a happy and carefree existence. As with most islands with a strong fishing industry the port of Peaco Island was a sight to behold, the silvery stone it was built with and its crescent moon shape stretching out into the ocean made it look like a reflection of the moon itself on some nights, and the docks were filled with a vast array of ships, from the small yet quirky fishing boats to the large and grand marine ships.

It was on those docks that two old men sat side by side peacefully watching the various ships sail in and out. It was a warm day, with the sun hanging lazily in an empty sky, and the pair was starting to fall asleep in their chairs.

CRASH!

The two jumped in fright, one of them tumbling over backwards in his chair, at the sudden sound. Their eyes flew to a part of the port in front of them where a small boat had crashed head first into the wall, and was slowly sinking. To their shock a young man scrambled up the wall and let out a relieved sigh as the boat became completely submerged in water.

"Yikes, that was close." Gerardo said to himself with a grimace as he watched his ship disappear into the bottom of the ocean. "There goes my ride out of here. Guess I'll need to find another ship."

"O-Oi you! What the hell do you think you're doing?" one of the men shouted.

Gerardo turned to face them, apparently having overlooked them before, with a confused expression. "I was docking here. Isn't that what you're supposed to do at docks?"

"Ramming your boat into a wall does _not_ count as docking!" the other man replied. "How are you going to pay for the damage you've done to the wall?"

"Oh! Um… well." Gerardo patted down his pockets, eventually bringing out a single beli coin. "Will this be enough?"

"Not even close!" the man shouted.

"Ah. In that case," Gerardo suddenly turned and ran off at full speed. "Goodbye!" He could hear the men shouting at him to stop behind him, but they had no chance of catching him at their age.

As he ran through the city Gerardo couldn't help but marvel at it. It was without a doubt a beautiful island; its architecture was so varied yet never seemed to clash with each other. There was only one problem with it.

" _Where the hell is everybody?"_ he thought. From the state of the houses it was clear the island was inhabited, yet besides the old men at the docks he hadn't seen anybody else about.

As he turned a corner he finally spotted someone, a little old lady rocking back and forth on a rocking chair in her porch. "Excuse me miss, where is everybody?" he asked as her approached her.

The old lady opened one eye to look at him and gave him a faint smile. "Not from around town are you? Everyone who's fit enough is helping out around the marine base."

Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "Helping out? With what?"

The old lady chuckled softly. "Why don't you go and see for yourself. The marine base is just over there." She pointed a knobbly hand towards the centre of the island, where a large white tower stuck out from the houses like a tree amongst grass.

"Wow. That's one big tower." Gerardo whistled. Whilst the tower didn't have the same artistic flare as the rest of the island, its sheer size gave it an impressive aura in its own right. Curiously enough the top of the tower seemed to be a metal dome with what from a distance appeared to be a telescope sticking out of it. With a quick thank you to the old lady he headed towards the tower.

As he walked Gerardo noticed something strange. Lying on top of a hedge outside one of the houses was a pair of the blue trousers that were part of the marine's standard uniform. While it was unusual it wasn't anything suspicious, except that a little while later Gerardo found a marine shirt lying in the middle of the road. A little while after that he noticed a chair on top of someone's roof, and then a little while later a pair of underwear hanging off the top of a flagpole.

The closer he got to the base, the more and more common it became to find random objects lying about the place. Finally Gerardo reached a clearing around the marine base and gasped in shock at the sight before him.

The place looked like a bomb had gone off, with tables, chairs, pieces of paper, weapons, marine uniforms and all sorts of other things you would expect to find in a marine base scattered randomly across the clearing. On closer inspection not a single item seemed to be damaged in any way besides being a little dusty. The townsfolk were rummaging around the clearing gathering some of the lost items and bringing them into the marine base, one or two of them shooting pitying looks at the marine soldiers lined up sleeping on the side of the wall. Speaking of the marines they looked terrible, each of them wearing dirty, dishevelled clothing and nursing large black bags underneath their eyes.

"Quite a sight isn't it."

Gerardo turned to face the speaker, a pretty young lady with long red hair wearing a pink dress. She shot him a small smile as she bent over to pick up a stack of papers by her feet. "It's been like this every night for the past three days. The poor marines haven't caught a wink of sleep."

"What happened here?" Gerardo asked.

The young lady frowned. "No one's quite sure. A few of the marines have been babbling some nonsense about the prisoner that arrived recently, but with the clearing up and letting the marines sleep no-ones figured out the whole story yet."

Gerardo's eyes widened at the mention of the prisoner. "You don't mean that Tio guy do you? Tio the traitor? What does he have to do with this?"

"Like I said, I'm not sure." the lady replied. "I think one of the marines who was talking about him is awake, I saw him heading to a tavern on the east side of the island called the Blasted Bunny."

"The Blasted Bunny? Thanks, I'll see if I can find him." Gerardo said with a nod.

* * *

After a few minutes of searching around the east area of the island Gerardo finally found the tavern, a ramshackle old building that stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the lines of pretty houses besides it with a rather amusing sign picture of an adorable little bunny rabbit being fired out of a cannon.

Stepping inside Gerardo was instantly hit by the stale air and unpleasant aroma of smoke that perfectly complemented the 'cheap-and-dirty' style the tavern had going for itself. The patrons here were the sort you'd expect from such a dive, unshaven and scraggly, except for a single marine by the bar whose white uniform shone like a lighthouse amongst the sea of brown and grey.

Gerardo took a seat next to the marine, noting that just like all the other marines he seemed haggard and sleepy. With his only coin Gerardo bought a drink, a cheap and nasty looking half pint of beer, then twisted slightly to face the marine. "You don't look to good."

The marine raised a glassy eye to look at him, his gaze taking notably longer to fix than normal. "You try being haunted for a week, see how you look afterwards."

"Haunted?" Gerardo asked, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean haunted?"

"As in having ghosts attack!" the marine suddenly yelled, accidentally knocking the drink in front of him to the floor. He spun around to face Gerardo completely. "The villagers think we're crazy, think we aren't getting enough sleep and are seeing things. But each and every marine at the base can testify that every night we get attacked by spirits from the beyond!"

"Spirits! Really! That's so cool!" Gerardo said with a grin. "I've always wanted to meet a ghost! Say, what do they look like?"

The marine paused for a minute, then gave an angry huff. "Well I haven't exactly seen any myself, but you can tell they're there."

Gerardo tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Really? How?"

The marine made a sweeping gesture with his arm then pointed out the door. "You see all those marine base items lying around out there? Well they didn't get there by themselves you know. Or should I say they did? The ghosts possess them and send them charging about everywhere."

Gerardo looked sceptical. "Really? How can you be sure that its ghosts then? And why would they be haunting you guys anyway?"

All at once the anger drained out of the marine, and was replaced by a cold fear. "It's not us they're after, we're just in the way. What they're really trying to do is get to the new prisoner of ours, Tio. We know that it's ghosts see, because he told us. When they transferred him here he told Lieutenant-Commander Sanzel."

* * *

 _Sanzel peered inside for a while, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness. After a while he scoffed, "That's him? That's Tio the Traitor? Are you certain you have the right guys here; he's nothing like what I expected."_

 _Suddenly the figure broke into laugher in a rich, silvery voice that Sanzel noticed made the nearby marine jump as if stung. The figure smirked, and Sanzel couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit of fear as a pair of bright blue eyes opened and fixed him with a stare._

" _Tell me, Lieutenant-Commander," the figure said smoothly, each word perfectly pronounced. "Do you believe in ghosts?"_

 _As if it were the moon, his words sent cold waved of fear lapping at Sanzel's soul, and Sanzel struggled to get his mouth to reply. "Of course not! Who'd believe such a ridiculous thing as that?"_

 _Again the figure laughed. "Maybe you don't now, but you will soon. This I promise you."_

 _Sanzel gulped. "S-stop messing around scumbag, you…"_

" _They come for me at night." The figure said darkly. "The people I've killed, hundreds of them. When the mist roles in they come for me, come for my blood. They come to drag my soul back to hell. And do you know what Commander?"_

" _W-what?" Sanzel squeaked, unable to stop his knees shaking._

 _The figure gave a wide smile, which in the shadows appeared thin and hollow. "In a few days, you'll let them!"_

* * *

"The people he's killed? Hundreds of them?" Gerardo asked in shock. "Is that guy really so dangerous?"

"I don't know for sure," the marine replied. "But there's a rumour flying around that when base commander Tobias read his criminal record he was literally sick, and that he said the report on something called the 'Mustard Island Incident' that Tio was the mastermind behind was the most vile and depraved act he'd ever known. He muttered something about angry goats and pineapples for hours afterwards."

Gerardo gulped, suddenly not feeling so inclined to offer a place on his crew to this guy. "Man, he really doesn't sound like someone I wanna meet."

The marine snorted. "You and me both mate. If you want some advice I suggest ya hightail it out of here first thing tomorrow and don't look back. Until this guy's locked up in the darkest pit of Impel Down or sent to hell this island isn't safe." He made to take another swig of his drink, then realized its contents was all over the floor. "Damn, guess I better get back to base. Take care of yourself mate."

With that the marine left the bar, and Gerardo absently took a sip of his drink. Sure the guy had looked scary on the wanted poster, but so did most strong pirates and those were the kind of people Gerardo was looking for. What he wasn't looking for however was a psychopath, and by the sounds of it that's exactly what this Tio guy was. Should he still try to meet him?

Perhaps not.

"Ahh, guess I'll try another island tomorrow." Gerardo sighed as he sunk down onto the table. He gazed absently into his glass, then suddenly was struck by a thought."

"Wait a second, I just spent my last beli on this beer! Where the hell am I going to stay tonight!" he shouted in panic.

"Oh, don't you have anywhere to go dearie?" said the bartender, a small, wrinkly old lady. She looked him up and down for a minute then hummed thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what, you wash the dishes and sweep the floor and I'll lend you a room upstairs for the night."

"You will?" Gerardo replied with a hearty grin. "Thank you so much."

"Oh don't worry, it's the least I can do for a strapping young man like you." The bartender replied with a coy wink that sent shivers down Gerardo's spine. "Maybe I'll swing by later on tonight and keep you company, hotstuff."

Slowly but surely Gerardo backed away from the counter.

* * *

Later that day, as the last rays of the sun disappeared on the horizon and the sky fell dark, Gerardo sat on a chair in a small, dusty room at the top of the pub. The room was bare, with the only other furnishings being a bed, a small side table and a cupboard. However the table and cupboard had been barricaded against the door in case the old bartender really did try to sneak in at night.

There was a single window in the room, and from where he sat Gerardo had a good view of the marine base in the distance. Everything seemed calm outside, the only thing moving around was a stray cat leisurely strolling across the rooftops.

"Ghosts huh?" Gerardo said to himself, then sighed. "Doesn't look like there's anything out there to me. Guess I'd better turn in for the night."

He turned away from the window and was about to dive under the sheets when suddenly he heard a loud 'thump' in the distance. He went back to the window and took another look outside, but everything was a peaceful and quiet as before.

"Hmm, was I hearing things?" he muttered to himself, and turned away just before another thumping sound echoed across the town.

He turned back to the window again, waiting a few second. Just as he was about to turn away again a third 'thump' rang out, and Gerardo's eye widened as he spotted the source.

"It's coming from… the marine base!"

Another series of loud thumps, and Gerardo definitely saw the large wooden doors shake in time with the noise. However there was nothing outside the doors causing it and the doors were moving as if trying to be opened from within. That could only mean…

"There's something inside trying to get out!" Gerardo exclaimed gleefully. He threw the barricade at his door to the side, ran downstairs and out of the tavern towards the marine base. The closer he got the louder and faster the thumps became. By the time he reached the base the thumps were as quick as a drumroll, and the gates were straining to keep whatever was behind them at bay. Suddenly there was a crash of splintering wood and the gate flung open, kicking up a wave of dirt and dust that forced Gerardo to close his eyes momentarily. He wiped the muck from his eyes, and as he opened them again he gasped in amazement at what he saw.

Tables and chairs stampeded out of the base as if they were horses, their wooden legs moving in a gallop under their own power. Marine shirts and trousers ran across the clearing with no one wearing them, and closely behind them a group of panicking marines dressed in nothing but their underwear chased after them. The sky was filled with a swarm of important marine documents folded into paper planes and birds that soared into the distance despite there being barely any wind.

"Incredible!" Gerardo breathed as a bunch of marines ran past screaming with a horde of hopping swords and muskets hot on their heels. "It's true. There really are ghosts."

The wide open gates seemed to beckon him inside, and a sharp-toothed grin spread across Gerardo's face. "Pyschopath or not, I gotta meet this Tio guy! This is so cool!"

With that he sprinted forwards, right into the midst of the chaos in the marine base.

* * *

 _Woot, here we go! The next arc has finally started. This arc has four chapters, each one longer than the last arc since I couldn't wait to get this out there. So what do you think? Is the mysterious Tio really haunted by ghosts? Find out soon._

 **Fun** **Fact:** Gerardo's theme music for season 1 is "The Touch" by Stan Bush.


	5. Chapter 5: Pandemonium

**Chapter 5**

 **Pandemonium! Tio takes the stage!**

* * *

Gerardo charged through the base, ducking and dodging at every turn to avoid the rampaging items and the marine's desperate attempts to control the situation. The one or two marines that noticed him amidst the chaos shouted at him to get out of the base, but were ultimately far too busy trying to catch their own clothes to stop him. Curiously enough the floor of the base was shrouded in a thin layer of dense white mist that hadn't been outside, and the minute he stepped into it he felt resistance against his run as his own clothes suddenly struggled to get themselves off of him.

"Sorry trousers," he said as he grabbed the hem of his jeans to keep them from falling down his legs. "I really need to meet this Tio guy and it'd be awkard if I showed up at his cell totally naked."

He stopped as he heard a woman scream from a room as he passed by, and opened the door to what appeared to be an armoury. A marine was cowering underneath a table as a horde of muskets hopped around, firing bullets randomly which ricocheted dangerously in the small room.

"Damn it, I can't just leave her there." he grumbled as a stray bullet flew dangerously close to the marines and grazed her cheek. He crossed his arms and ran into the hail of bullets.

" **Power Guard!"**

Dozens of bullets whizzed into him, but as soon as they touched his skin they stopped as if they'd never been moving in the first place and fell harmlessly to the floor. Using himself as a shield, Gerardo blocked the marine from the path of the bullets and led her out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them.

"T- Thank you. I thought I was going to die for sure." The marine gasped. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Actually I'm trying to find the criminal Tio, do you know where he might be?" Gerardo replied.

The marine eyed him warily. "Yeah, he's being held in the cells on the 20th floor. You don't want to go anywhere near that guy though, he's dangerous!"

"So I've heard, but I want to talk to him at the very least. Are you going to be alright now?"

The marine let out a shaky breath. "Yeah I should be fine. I'm going to report the state of the armoury to Commander Tobias, and I suggest you get out of here."

Gerardo grinned. "Thanks for worrying, but I really need to meet Tio. 20th floor right? Thank you." With that he sprinted of down the hallway.

The marine stared after him for a second, then shook her head. "What a weird guy."

* * *

The cells on the 20th floor were dark, with no windows about and only a few flickering candles to illuminate the room. There was nothing in the room but four cells, each with only an uncomfortable looking bed and a chamber pot for furnishing. Three of the cells were empty, but in the fourth a lone figure sat against the wall, the darkness in the room cloaking him so that only a silhouette of his body could be seen,

Suddenly there was a loud crash and the door to the room flew off its hinges, allowing a flood of bright light to shine into the room. Gerardo walked in, the light illuminating him as his eyes searched the cells and eventually settled on the shadowy figure in the corner.

"Well well, what's this?" the figure said slowly in his melodic voice. "You certainly don't look like a marine. What brings you here?"

"I'm looking for Tio. You're him, aren't you?" Gerardo replied calmly.

The figure chuckled. "Indeed I am. What business do you have with me that you'd be willing to run through a marine base in the middle of a pandemonium in order to find me?"

Gerardo stepped forwards to the front of the cell. "I wanted to meet you, that's all."

"Meet me? Why?"

"Because I'm looking for a crew to join me on my journey to become the king of the pirates, and I wanted to see if you'd be interested."

The figure laughed. "The pirate king? You? So you're going after One Piece? You do know that the strongest men in the world are fighting to find that treasure right? A treasure that probably doesn't even exist! What makes you think you can take on the world and succeed where others have failed?"

Gerardo's face hardened in determination. "Because I'll have something that they don't."

"Oh?" The silhouette opened his eyes, and a pair of bright blue eyes stared at Gerardo from out of the dark. "At what would that be?"

"Force of will." Gerardo replied instantly. "No matter who or what stands in my way I will protect my crew and find One Piece with everything I have, or die trying!"

The figure was silent for a moment, then burst out into laughter again. "I see, I see. What an interesting guy you are. And you think I qualify to join this crew of yours?"

Gerardo gave a sharp smile. "That's what I'm here to find out. Why don't you come into the light and let me get a good look at you?"

The figure stopped laughing, and then slowly stood up. "Very well." With slow, casual movements they walked forwards until the light finally illuminated them.

He was slightly shorter than Gerardo, with a lean, thin body and slightly pale skin. His messy medium length hair was a golden blonde colour and had a long, thin braid hanging down in front of his right ear. He had cute, rather girly facial features with long eyelashes that highlighted his milky blue eyes, and just beneath his right eye was a tiny tattoo of a golden star. He was wearing an open black Hawaiian shirt covered in yellow flowers and stars that showed off his slim torso, red harem pants secured around his waist by a yellow sash with the knot tied on the right side of his body and brown sandals. Around each of his wrists and ankles were three golden bracelets. All in all he didn't look the least bit threatening, hell he seemed more like an idol than a criminal.

For a minute Gerardo stared at him blankly, saying nothing. Eventually however he opened his mouth.

"Sorry, who are you?"

The figure sweat dropped. "I'm Tio. Tio the traitor." he growled. "We've already established this!"

But Gerardo looked sceptical. "Don't be ridiculous, you look nothing like him." He pulled the drawn bounty picture from the newspaper out of his pocket. "This poster of Tio shows that he's bald, has sharp teeth and is covered in scars. How can you be Tio?"

The figure gave a small smile. "Oh, so that's what this is about. Look I didn't exactly want a bounty or anything, and unfortunately once you get one it's quite hard to get rid of it. Fortunately I know a guy who knows a guy who works in the marine bounty office, and he switched my photo with that drawn one so that almost nobody figures out who I am."

"But you still look nothing like a pirate!" Gerardo cried. "Aren't you supposed to be a mass murderer or something? You're telling me you don't even have a single scar?"

The figure raised an eyebrow. "Mass murderer? I'm not a mass murder! I've never killed anyone! Heck I'm not even a pirate! Why would you think tha…" suddenly a lightbulb went off above his head. "Oh I see, you've been listening to those rumours I spread around the marines to scare them haven't you. Look I'm just a conman, a conman who happens to sail about from place to place. Those 'victims' mentioned in the newspaper aren't people I've killed; they're people I've conned."

"What about the ghosts then? The ones possessing everything in this base? Aren't they supposed to be the ghost of the people you've killed?"

"Really? You actually believed that? There's no such thing a ghosts, that was just another rumour I spread to try and scare them into letting me go. The reason why all that stuff is moving," he pointed down to the floor, where the thick white fog lapped at their feet, "is that."

"The fog?" Gerardo asked, looking down at the floor in confusion. "What's the fog got to do with it?"

The figure said nothing, just smiled slightly. He took a deep breath in and then breathed out through his mouth, but instead of air the same thick white mist blew out and circled around the room. The figure held out his hand, and instantly the mist moved towards it like a magnet and formed a small twirling hurricane in his palm. "This is no ordinary mist; it's the power of my devil fruit, the life life fruit. I can breathe my own energy out as this fog, control it, and use it to animate inanimate objects for a short time. Normally I can't make quite this much, but being locked up in this cell all the time has given me a ton of spare energy to use, allowing me to send the marine base into chaos for a few hours each night." He looked at Gerardo's clothes, which were still struggling slightly in Gerardo's grasp to get free. "Sorry guys, I know I asked you all to run around and cause havoc for me but would you mind staying on him for the rest on the night?"

Gerardo's eyes widened as his clothes stopped wriggling around. "You can control them?"

"Not quite, once I've animated them they have the free will to do as they like until the energy I've given them runs out. They do tend to be quite grateful to me once I bring them to life though, so they mostly do what I ask of them."

Gerardo looked up at him again. "So you are Tio?"

"Yep."

"And you're not a pirate?"

"Nope."

"And you're not even that strong?"

"Nope."

Gerardo let out a depressed sigh. "Guess I was wasting my time coming here then. See you around."

"Wait! Wait!" Tio shouted as Gerardo made to leave. "Why are you leaving? Didn't you want me to join your crew?"

Gerardo pouted. "Well yeah, but I thought you were strong. I'm glad you're not a bad guy, but I need a crew full of strong people."

"So you're just going to leave me here?"

"Yep."

"Hold on a second!" Tio shouted as Gerardo made to leave again. "Alright I admit I may not actually be that strong, but if you're aiming to sail through the grand line I can prove invaluable to your crew!"

Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "Really? How?"

Tio gave a cocky smirk. "Because I'm a genius. My IQ is over 300, I know over a hundred skills, and I can come up with a plan to get out of just about any situation you might find yourself in. I may not be a strong fighter, but with my brains I don't need to be."

Gerardo looked sceptical. "Really?"

"Yes really. The reason why I have a bounty when I'm not even a pirate is because all the rich people I've conned out of their money got together and demanded the marines do something about it. Now you seem like a fighting kind of guy, and I can respect that, so if we team up you can do all the hitting and I can do all the thinking. What do you say?"

"Why would you be interested in sailing the grand line though?"

Tio paused, a note of hesitance in this voice. "There's… There's something I'm looking for. Something that may well be found on the Grand Line. If you're actually capable of traveling through that hell of a sea then I'll stick with you until I find it."

Gerardo though about it for a minute, then eventually shrugged. "Well I guess it can't hurt to give you a try-out." He approached the bars and reached for the lock. "One second, I'll melt the lock and then we can get out of here."

He grabbed the lock and narrowed his eyes in concentration, but nothing happened. On the other side of the bars Tio raised an eyebrow. "If your genius plan for getting me out of here is to melt the lock with your body heat then I'm afraid we could be here for, oh I don't know, a couple of billion years."

"What's going on! My devil fruit should allow me to focus heat energy into this and melt it easily!" Gerardo exclaimed.

Tio gave a heavy sigh. "So you're devil fruit eater as well huh? Well then you should have at least heard of seastone before now right? The cells on this floor have ground seastone worked into the metal to stop devil fruit users from breaking out of them, so I'm afraid whatever power you have is pretty much useless here."

"Then how do I get you out?" Gerardo said with a frown.

"The same way you normally open locks," Tio replied. "You find the key. Somewhere in this base is the key to this cell, and I've been flooding the base with my fog every night to try and get it to come up here to me. It seems that something is stopping my mist from reaching it though, or keeping it from coming here, so if you can find it you should be able to free me."

"Any ideas where it'll be?"

Tio sat down and stroked his chin. "The last time I saw it was when Lieutenant-Commander Sanzel locked me up in here, so my best bet would be to start with him. I think I heard a guard say his office in on the 10th floor."

"The 10th floor? Got it!" Gerardo nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I find it."

"I'll see you soon then _captain._ " Tio replied with a smirk.

Gerardo raced back out the room, leaving Tio to sit in his cell. A few seconds after he had gone Tio shook his head.

"What a strange guy, kinda funny though. It's too bad…" his lips curled up into a mischievous grin, "that when this is all over he'll curse the day he met me."

* * *

 _O.o What's this? Tio isn't what he seems? Perhaps Gerardo's better off leaving him in his cell._

 **Fun Fact:** Gerardo is a good drinker, a _really_ good drinker. He could probably down a whole barrel of sake and stay standing.


	6. Chapter 6: Genius or Judas

**Chapter 6**

 **Genius or Judas? Who is Tio the Traitor?**

* * *

Gerardo raced down the stairs, ignoring the panicking marines and rampaging objects causing chaos around him.

"12th floor… 11th floor… Aha! 10th floor!"

He bolted down the corridor, head darting from side to side as he searched for Sanzel's office. He passed door after door with no luck, until…

"Ha! Found it!"

Unlike the other doors, this one was made of a higher quality wood and had a silver plaque with the words 'Lieutenant-Commander Sanzel's Office' hanging from it. The door was open, and inside of it was what looked like a snowstorm of papers whirling around. Bursting through the storm, Gerardo found Sanzel desperately trying to swipe the papers flying around him out of the air.

Sanzel was a rather reedy man, with long lime green hair falling over the shoulders of his perfectly presentable uniform. A long white feather was tucked behind his ear, and behind his spectacles his eyes shone with a stern determination.

"Damn it! Hold still you little…" he noticed Gerardo and fixed him with a glare. "Civilian! What are you doing here? The marine base is for authorised personnel only!"

Gerardo ignored him, looking around the room until he noticed a thick looking safe in a corner. "Hey limey, is the key to Tio's cell in that safe?"

Sanzel stopped swiping at the papers, turning to face Gerardo and drawing the rapier at his side from its sheath. "What's it to you civilian? You're not thinking of busting Tio out are you?"

"Yeah, he's my crewmate."

Sanzel's eyes widened. "Crewmate? He's a pirate? I thought he was a mere conman?"

Gerardo grinned. "Not anymore, he's agreed to join my crew."

Sanzel stared at him for a minute, face blank, and then suddenly burst into a raspy laugh. "Oh you fool, you poor fool. Don't you realise he's tricking you?"

"What do you mean?"

Sanzel's laugher died down, and he shot Gerardo a pitying look. "There's a reason we give pirates epithets you know, to warn people about their nature. Tio has a lot of nicknames you know, Tio the Conman, Tio the Trickster, but can you guess why his most famous one is Tio the Traitor?"

Gerardo raised an eyebrow. "No, why?"

"Because than man doesn't have a shred of honour in his soul. Ever since he showed up in South Blue two years ago he has betrayed _every single_ person he's ever worked for. No exceptions. The second he feels like it best suits him he jumps ship and sells out his colleagues for his own gain, it's all he ever does. He's nothing but an honourless, backstabbing cur who'd betray his own friends in a heartbeat."

"Then you mean…"

"That's right." Sanzel sneered. "He's using you my friend, playing you to try and escape. But I guarantee you the moment things stop going your way he'll feed you to the dogs and run off by himself."

He sheathed his rapier and gave Gerardo a surly smile. "Look mate I don't recognise your face from the bounty posters, and believe me I would, so I'm going to guess you haven't actually done any piracy yet. Just leave now, forget you ever saw Tio and I'll forget I saw you, ok? You can go back to…"

"No."

Sanzel narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?"

"I said no." Gerardo replied, shifting into a fighting stance. "I don't know about his history but I do know one thing; he has the same look in his eyes as I do, the look of a man who longs for adventure. So if he'll betray me the moment he feels he'll be better off without me then that's fine, I'll just make sure he never feels that way!"

Sanzel drew his rapier. "Foolish pirate! If that's the way you feel then I'll just have to make sure the two of you go to Impel Down together!"

He lunged at Gerardo with a lightning quick volley of thrusts, but Gerardo raised his arms into an x. **"Power Guard!"**

Each of the thrusts stopped the second they touched him, and with a snarl Sanzel brought his rapier down in a wide vertical slash. Just before it touched though the blade whipped around and cut a thin horizontal gash in Gerardo's stomach.

"Hmm, an interesting ability. You must be a devil fruit eater right? But I'm guessing that an ability like that requires a certain amount of focus, and if you can't concentrate on everywhere at once in battle I just have to strike where you're not expecting it."

He thrust forward again, feinting a stab to the head. But as Gerardo raised an arm to block it he dropped down, slipping underneath his raised arm, and twisted round to slice a thin gash down Gerardo's back.

"What's wrong pirate?" he taunted. "To slow to keep up? A brute like you will have no chance in the world if you're too cumbersome to land a blow on a single marine."

"Then I guess I'll just have to get you fighting on my terms!" Gerardo said with a grin.

Sanzel frowned and charged forwards with another quick slash, but before it could connect Gerardo shouted **"Gravity Drain!"** and jumped in the air. To Sanzel's horror Gerardo didn't come back down, instead flipping in mid-air and landing on the roof. He stood up, clothes not folding over as if he wasn't currently breaking the laws of physics, and then jumped towards Sanzel.

" **Gravity Drop!"** he shouted, and suddenly came whizzing back down towards Sanzel at twice the normal speed a falling man should have in a vicious axe kick. Sanzel barely had time to raise his sword before Gerardo came smashing down on top of him and forced him to his knees under the weight of the kick.

" _He's heavy!"_ Sanzel thought. _"Did he increase his weight? No, that's not it. Somehow he stored away the gravity that should have been acting upon him before when he flew up to the roof and then unleashed it just now to double his weight!"_ "That's an interesting devil's fruit you have their pirate!" he growled. "But it'll take more than that to crush me!"

"Crush you? Who said anything about crushing you?" Gerardo replied. "I just needed you to stop dancing around for a minute so I could hit you, and now that you're trapped under my foot I doubt you're going anywhere!"

He raised his arm, and Sanzel's eyes widened in fear as the arm turned an angry red colour and the air around it started swaying as if in a heat wave.

" **Meteor Bomb!"** Gerardo cried as he swung his fist at Sanzel and hit him square in the stomach. Sanzel gasped as the heat surrounding the fist set fire to his uniform, and then was sent flying into the wall by the strength of the blow. His eyes glazed over as he fell into unconsciousness.

"Well that was pretty easy." Gerardo grinned as he wiped his hands. He walked over to the safe and crouched down in front of it. "Now then how do I get into this? I could always melt it, but I don't want to damage the key."

Suddenly a tiny paper airplane detached itself from the rest of the storm of paper and settled down in his hand, unfurling itself into a thin line of paper with a sentence of numbers written on it. Gerardo laughed, "I see, you're helping me free your master eh?" He turned the dials to enter the number, and the safe swung open to reveal the key. "Good job little paper thing, I'm sure Tio will be very happy with you."

* * *

Tio sat cross legged in his cell, listening calmly to the commotion outside his room, when suddenly Gerardo burst back in with the key in his hand. "Hey Tio I've got the key, let's get out of here."

Tio grinned as Gerardo unlocked the cell. "Just in time too, the energy I gave to the objects is starting to run out. Let's get out of here before the chaos finishes."

The two of them rushed out the room and headed for the staircase, but all around them the various object's movements had become more sluggish and some of the marines were able to spot them.

"Hey look! Tio the Traitor has escaped! Get him!"

Those that had managed to wrestle back control of their guns fired at them, and Gerardo put himself in the path of Tio and the bullets with a shout of **"Power Guard!"**

Tio stared wide eyed as they harmless fell to the floor as soon as they touched him. "Well isn't that a handy little power." A roar behind him made him turn to see a group of unarmed marines trying to grab him.

" **Panic Party!"** he muttered, and then breathed out a thick white gust of mist from his mouth which washed over the charging marines. Instantly the marine's uniforms curled up like straightjackets and brought their wearers crashing to the floor.

The marines with guns stopped to reload, and sensing his chance Gerardo shoved his fingers into the ground and ripped out a chunk of floor. **"Power Throw!"** he growled, and sent the huge lump of stone hurtling at the marines as if it were no more than a baseball. The marines leaped out the way, falling to the floor to dodge the attack, and before they could get back up Gerardo grabbed Tio's wrist and ran down the stairs.

The duo raced down the stairs, all the way to the first floor, but before they left the staircase Tio came to a stop and put his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.

"Hey Tio, you ok?" Gerardo asked.

"'M fine… it's just… tired…"

"Tired? What do you mean, you just got out."

"My devil fruit ability is… pretty draining…" Tio panted. "All the energy… the objects use to move about… comes from me. It's like I've been… doing all the running about they've been doing… myself." He looked up at Gerardo with a small smirk, but his naturally pale complexion had turned deathly white. "Besides… physical activity isn't really my thing. I'm more of a… thinker."

"Oh, I see." Gerardo's hand shot out, grabbed Tio and slung him over his shoulder. "Ok, let's go!"

"What the hell are you doing? Put me down bonehead!" Tio shouted, but Gerardo just grinned. "What's the problem? We don't have time to wait for you to recover, so you keep a lookout for anyone following us and I'll get us out of here."

Tio grimaced. "Remind me why I agreed to join you again?"

They rounded the corner to the entrance, and Gerard suddenly skidded to a halt. "What? Why'd you stop?" Tio asked, looking over his shoulder.

A line of five small cannons were set up in front of the door, with a horde of marines behind them and Lieutenant-Commander Sanzel standing at the front with a wry smirk. "There you are, I knew you'd pass through here eventually." He pointed at them. "Cannon one, fire!"

The cannon fired, sending a cannon ball whizzing toward them. Gerardo raised a hand and caught the cannonball, grunting in effort and sliding back a bit as he struggled to absorb the cannonballs momentum. He threw it to the side where it exploded against the wall of the base.

Sanzel frowned and raised his arm, and at once the marines aimed their rifles at the duo. "Prepare to fire!"

"Captain, I can handle to bullets if you can take care of those cannonballs." Tio whispered. "Do you think you can block them all?"

"No, that's too much energy for me to absorb at once." Gerardo replied. "Besides the explosions would burn me, and I can't extend my power over other people so if one hits you then that's it." A sharp toothed grin spread across his face. "I think there is something I can do though."

"Fire!" Sanzel bellowed, sending a hail of bullets towards them like a swarm of angry bees.

" **Sparrow Party!"** Tio yelled, and breathed a cloud of mist down the hall. As soon as the bullets touched it they swerved in mid-air, parting to avoid them. Gerardo sprinted forwards, dashing down the hallway as the mist cleared.

"Cannons fire!" Sanzel shouted, and at once the four remaining cannons launched a salvo of cannonballs at them.

Gerardo grinned. **"Power Burst!"** As his foot touched the ground he suddenly burst forwards like a rocket, zipping past the cannonballs and coming face to face with Sanzel.

Sanzel gasped and screamed "Draw your swo…" before Gerardo's fist connected with his face and sent him flying back into the huddle of marines. Gerardo grinned as he raised his arm in the air, power radiating from his fist.

"Time to have a taste of your own cannonball back. **Power Bomb!"**

He punched forwards, sending out a shockwave that blew the marines back and flung the doors to the base wide open. Laughing heartily, Gerardo ran over the unconscious marines and off into the town.

* * *

Not long later the two arrived at the Blasted Bunny, and Gerardo set the still pale faced Tio down at the foot of the stairs.

"So this is your hideout huh?" Tio said, looking around the place with a wary eye. "Where's the rest of your crew."

Gerardo chuckled. "There is no rest of the crew, just you and me partner."

Tio stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. "Seriously? You don't have anybody else?"

"Nope. I only just started."

Tio sighed. "Oh course you did." He stood up, and the two headed upstairs. "Well since every other position apart from captain is empty I'll take first mate, I can easily keep things running and manage the tasks that require a bit of intelligence. So where's your ship?"

"Don't have one."

Tio scowled at him as he opened the door to their room. "You don't have your own ship? What kind of a pirate are…" suddenly he froze with a look of abject horror on his face.

"Hmm? Tio? What the matt…" Gerardo looked in the room, and froze at what he saw.

The old landlady lay on the bed, the only thing covering her wrinkly body being the blanket. She winked coyly at Gerardo. "Hello there hotstuff, I've been waiting for you. I see you've brought a cute little friend to the party too. Don't worry the bed's big enough for the three of us."

Tio backed away, his mouth open in a silent scream. "I- Wha- If this is what you want to do with your crew then count me out."

"No! It's not like that! I swear!" Gerardo cried. He wrapped the old lady up in the blanket and threw her out the room, shutting the door and barricading it behind her. "STAY OUTTA HERE YOU OLD HAG!"

The two stood in silence, recovering from their mental ordeal, when Tio fixed Gerardo with a suspicious look.

"Captain, you're some kind of sexual deviant aren't you?"

"NO I'M NOT! I SWEAR!" Gerardo replied. "I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT!"

Tio gave him an assessing look, then sighed and sat down on the chair by the window. He absently picked up a newspaper from the side table and started flicking through it. "Well anyway let's get back to more important matters. How do you intend to escape if you don't have a ship?"

Gerardo leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "I'm sure we can always buy or steal one tomorrow."

Tio sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You really didn't do any research before you came here did you? If we try anything like that we'll be dead in seconds."

"Why?" Gerardo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because after what just happened at the base the marines will put the dock on lockdown, and a lockdown on this island is nigh impossible to break out of." He pointed to the marine base out of the window with his thumb. "You see that telescope looking thing at the top of the base?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Well that's not a telescope, it's a cannon. Due to the crescent moon like shape of the docks the marines can easily tell the location of a ship within in, then by comparing it to a grid they can fire that cannon with frightening accuracy even from such a long distance. That cannon is special, it can fire a salvo of twelve shots at once, so when the docks are on lockdown any unauthorised ship trying to enter or leave gets sunk by twelve perfectly aimed shots."

"Can't we just break into the marine base again and sabotage it somehow?"

"If you want to try breaking in when they're organised, looking for you and not distracted by my ability be my guest. Besides even if we did sabotage the cannon by the time we got back to the docks they'd have fixed it or called in for the gates at the end of the docks to be closed." He sighed, "Perhaps we should get some sleep; maybe we can come up with something tomorrow morning."

"Alright." Gerardo replied, going over to sit on the side of the bed. "By the way I don't think we've properly introduced ourselves." He grinned, "I'm Gerardo, Gerardo Macbeth. Future king of the pirates and eater of the Battery Battery fruit! My dream is, of course, to find one piece."

Tio smirked. "I'm Tio Banquo, smartest person on the planet and the guy who ate the Life Life fruit. Don't bother asking what I'm looking for, 'cos I won't tell you."

Gerardo pouted. "Why not? Don't be all stingy."

"I'm not being stingy," Tio growled, "it's just my own business is all. Maybe I'll tell you if we ever get close to finding it, but until then don't go prying into my affairs." Suddenly something in the newspaper caught his eye and a brief look of shock passed Tio's face.

"What? What is it?" Gerardo asked.

Tio hesitated, then folded the newspaper up and put it down on the floor. "Nothing, just shocked that there's been another string of disappearances. They've been happening all over South Blue recently. I may have a plan for tomorrow though."

"What? What is it."

Tio smirked. "I'll tell you tomorrow, I still need to work out the details for now."

"If you say so." Gerardo replied with a frown. "Goodnight." He turned off the light and lay down on the mattress while Tio slumped into his chair, and for a few seconds the two stayed completely silent in the darkness.

"Hey Tio," Gerardo said quietly, "back at the base Sanzel said that you betray everyone you know, that you'd sell out your own friends in a heartbeat. That's not true right?"

He sensed Tio stiffen slightly, and for a moment thought he'd get no reply.

"No that's… that's not true." Tio replied rather stiffly.

"Hmm… ok."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Hey Tio?"

"Yeah?"

"Earlier today a marine mentioned something called the Mustard Island incident, something about it involving pineapples and angry goats. What's that about?"

Tio broke out into a coughing fit, and even in the dark Gerardo could swear he saw Tio's face blushing madly. "That's- That was a misunderstanding that got way out of hand and was completely not my fault!"

"But pineapples? And goats?"

"Well we were at a swimming pool and the vicar said… You know what forget it, it's not something you wanna know about!"

"Aww come on!"

"No! Go to sleep bonehead!"

* * *

Later that night base commander Tobias, better known as 'Ten Ton Tobias', led a patrol to a water fountain on the east side of the island. Tobias' nickname was well earned, as the man's sheer mass of muscle and fat gave him the build of a sumo wrestler. He had a long, scraggly brown beard and a marine cap covering his head, and across his nose was an assortment of red blotches of varying shapes and sizes. His marine uniform and overcoat was covered in red and yellow splotches, ketchup and mustard from the many hotdogs he had eaten that were just like the one he was chewing on now.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a note, a note that had flown into his window in the form of a paper aeroplane a few minutes ago, and scanned the area.

"Tio? Where are you? I got your note, what kind of deal could you possible hope to make with me?"

"Ah commander, glad you could make it."

The marines whirled round, guns pointing up to the roof where Tio sat with the moon shining behind him.

"Now now bossman, tell your men to calm down." Tio laughed as he raised his hands defensively. "I don't want to fight, like I said I'm here to make a deal."

Tobias snorted. "What could I possibly want more than a man with a 4,000,000 beli bounty?"

"How about a man with a 6,000,000 beli bounty?"

Tio pulled a newspaper out of his pocket, unfolding it to show a page which made Tobias' eyes widen in shock.

A picture of Gerardo, eyes wide with elation and grinning madly as what looked like bits of a building fell down around him, stared out at him. His hair was rustled, as if he was being blown by a huge gust of wind, and the red streak in it faced the camera head on as the picture was taken at a slight right angle. There was a mixture of mischief and courage in his eyes that seemed like a personal catch-me-if-you-can challenge to the reader. Around the picture were words all too familiar to everyone in this golden age of pirates.

* * *

WANTED

DEAD OR ALIVE

RENEGADE MACBETH

6,000,000

Wanted for wanton destruction and theft of world government property in the South Blue, Gerardo "Renegade" Macbeth has been issued this bounty due to his high levels of personal destructive power, dangerous ideology and actions of piracy. Be advised that he possesses a devil fruit of currently unknown capability.

* * *

"This is the guy who busted you out earlier? His bounty is higher than yours!" Tobias exclaimed.

Tio rolled his eyes. "Really? I hadn't noticed. And here I just wanted you to read the cupcake baking tips on page ten."

Tobias growled. "Don't get sassy with me boy! Now what's your point?"

"The point is that we can come to an arrangement, you and I. See I want to get off this island, and you want to turn in a criminal to get a nice promotion, so let's make a trade." Tio's voice lost all hint of playfulness. "If I give you Gerardo then you let me leave this island and send him to Impel Down in my place. You get to deliver a more notorious criminal, I get to go on my merry way, and we'll both be happy."

Tobias stared at him for a moment, then broke out into a deep laugh that sent small bits of half chewed hotdog flying everywhere. "Twayayayaya. As expected of Tio the traitor, you'd sell out the man who freed you to save your own skin. You're as callous and selfish as I heard." He pulled his mouth back into a menacing grin. "Very well then, bring him to me and you can go free."

"Uh sir, are you sure we can handle this?" one of the marines spoke up. "That guy stopped a cannonball with his bare hands and thrashed a whole garrison, he's even got a devil's fruit! How are we supposed to beat that?"

"By cheating of course!" Tio said with a smirk. "The prison ship arriving tomorrow is fully equipped to hold devil fruit eaters and with the reinforcements on it you'll have more than enough men to take him down." He laughed, "Besides haven't you heard? I'm a genius! I've figured out all the weaknesses of his little ability already! There are a grand total of five of them by the way! Let me tell you them, and then tomorrow I'll lure Gerardo down to the docks, you guys can ambush him and I'll send you a postcard from wherever I end up next."

Commander Tobias laughed. "Twayayayaya. I like your style kiddo, stab him in the nuts while his back is turned. All right then, tell me how to counter his ability."

Tio gave a sly, malicious grin that lit up his eyes with wickedness. "Ok then. First of all…"

* * *

 _Tio! Why! Why did I create such a self-serving character! What do you think folks? Is this the end for our hero already?_

 _A few of you Shakespeare nuts might recognise the name Banquo from, yes you guessed it, Macbeth. Well I'll admit to being a Shakespeare fan, guy writes a hell of a good play, so lookout for the other Shakespeare names I drop in throughout the story._

 **Fun Fact:** Though knowledge of the Mustard Island incident was never made public, those in the know regard it as perhaps the most incredibly deranged crime in South Blue history.


	7. Chapter 7: Battle at the docks

**Chapter 7**

 **Ambush! Battle at the docks!**

* * *

The next morning Gerardo and Tio woke up as the sun rose on the horizon, stretching out their aching muscles and rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

"Hey captain, I think I've figured out a plan to get us outta here." Tio drawled. "But we need to find a way into the docks to do it. The lockdown will mean that marines will be stationed at the entrances to the port to check for any signs of us."

Gerardo grinned. "Don't worry, I have the perfect plan to do that."

Tio raised an eyebrow. "And that would be?"

"We go down there and beat everyone up!"

"THAT'S NOT A PLAN!" Tio snarled, whacking Gerardo upside the head and leaving a large bruise. "A plan means forethought and a proper strategy! Beating everyone up does not count as a plan!"

Gerardo winced, rubbing his bruise. "But it'll work wont it?"

"No it won't, unless you think bringing every marine on this island down upon our heads is a good idea!" Tio snapped. "If we attack anyone they'll call for reinforcements, and once they know where we are base commander Tobias is likely to throw every marine in the base at us."

"Then what should we do."

Tio sat down in the chair, stroking his chin. "We need to sneak past them somehow without them noticing, like by using a secret tunnel or disgui…" he trailed off, eyes widening as an idea struck him. "That's it! The marines may be looking for us, but if we disguise ourselves we can sneak right past them!"

Gerardo frowned. "Are you any good with disguises?"

"Of course! Art is one of my one hundred secret skills. If we can find a makeup kit and some clothes around here somewhere I can whip us up a disguise in no time."

Gerardo laughed. "Awesome! Then let's get to it."

* * *

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Captain if you keep laughing I swear I'm going to hit you!"

"I- I can't- I can't help it! It's just to- BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Gerardo was hunched over, wrapped in a mass of brown and grey shawls and holding a knobbly wooden walking stick. Makeup had been applied to his face, hand and arms, making him look like the spitting image of a little old lady. He struggled to contain his laughter as he looked at what Tio was wearing.

A short, tight red top left his midriff bare, and the even shorter pink miniskirt with a cute heart shaped belt left all but the very tops of his legs exposed. He wore a pair of black high heeled boots that he was clearly struggling to walk in, and all of the blusher and lipstick only served to highlight his furiously red face as he tried in vain to cover his more exposed bits with his arms.

"It- It was the only thing I could find around!" he muttered fiercely. "God damn it! How to girls wear these things all the time? I feel like I'm practically naked!"

"You- You look so much like a girl it's untrue!" Gerardo giggled in-between laughs. "You have such a feminine figure anyway. Is crossdressing one of your hundred secret skills too?"

"I'M GOING TO GUT YOU!" Tio snarled and made to hit him, but a sudden gust of wind made him stop in shivers and put his arms back around himself. "It's bloody freezing in this thing. Can we get this over with already so I can change into something warm!"

The two made their way to the docks, Gerardo struggling to control his chuckles every time someone gave Tio an appraising eye or a wolf whistle. Eventually they arrived at the entrance to the port where two marines stood guard.

"Hi there." Tio said girlishly, switching into more effeminate body language and swaying his hips slightly. "My grandma and I are just going to get some fresh fish. Could you let us through?"

One of the guards smiled. "Sure thing miss, but…" he pointed over to Gerardo, who had only managed to avoid doubling over trying to contain his laughter by leaning heavily on his walking stick. "Is your grandma alright? She looks like she's having a heart attack."

"Um… she's fine. Just a little senile in her old age." He took Gerardo's arm, squeezing it so tightly that Gerardo winced in pain. "Come on _grandma_ , we wouldn't want them to have sold out now would we?"

He pulled him forwards, almost past the guards, when suddenly the other guard grunted "Wait!" and blocked their path with his rifle. He gave Tio a hard stare. "You…"

Tio gulped, and besides him Gerardo tense up ready for a fight.

"… Should swing by the marine base sometime. We could get lunch or something." He winked, then raised his rifle to let them pass. Gerardo dropped his walking stick and covered his mouth with both hands as he fought to hold back his laughter, and Tio quickly dragged him away redder in the face than a tomato.

The two slipped down an alleyway to change back into their normal attire, and when they came out again (Tio still red in the face and Gerardo still giggling) they headed down to the docks where a large marine prison ship was waiting. Gerardo couldn't help but feel like something was wrong though, the port was practically deserted.

"Where is everyone? I know the port's on lockdown, but is there really _nobody_ here?" he asked. When no reply came he looked to his left, where Tio had been a few seconds ago, to find nothing there.

"Huh? Tio?"

"Fire!"

The sound of hundreds of shots rang out simultaneously, and Gerardo barely had the time to put up a power guard before a swarm of bullets crashed into him. Most of them fell to the ground immediately, but one or two of them cut small gashes across his arms, legs and cheeks. Before he had time to react roughly two hundred marines poured out of every nearby alley and surrounded him.

"Well well, looks like we finally caught you."

The ground shook slightly behind him, and Gerardo turned around to see the vast figure of base commander Tobias looking over him. His fat lips were stretched into a wide grin as he chewed on a hotdog.

"Twayayayaya! To think a man worth 6,000,000 beli would be so easy to capture. Surrender now _Renegade_ and we might make your stay in Impel Down comfy."

"Huh? 6,000,00 beli? Renegade?" Gerardo's eyes narrowed in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You mean you don't know? Twayayayaya." Tobias reached into his mucky overcoat and pulled out a wanted poster with Gerardo's face on it. "This bounty with your name on it was issued just yesterday. Congratulations pirate, you've gotten yourself the title of quickest pirate to catch in marine history."

"I… have a… bounty…" Gerardo mumbled. Suddenly his eyes were alight with excitement. "I have a bounty! That's so cool! I didn't think I'd get one already!"

Tobias snorted. "You know being surrounded by marines isn't the best time to be glad to be a wanted man."

"Oh please, as if you'll be able to stop me." Gerardo dropped into a fighting stance. "I stormed a tower with about a hundred men in it no sweat a few weeks ago. There might be a few more of you, and you might be a little bit better trained, but I reckon I can take you!"

Tobias' grin turned malicious. "Oh really? Let's put that to the test then shall we? Riflemen fire!"

Another hail of bullets shot towards Gerardo, and with a shout of **"Power Guard!"** Gerardo raised his arms and blocked them.

"Flamethrowers fire!"

Gerardo's eyes widened as a wave of fire washed over him.

* * *

 _Tio gave a sly, malicious grin that lit up his eyes with wickedness. "Ok then. First of all when we were about to be fired at by cannons back in the marine base he mentioned that even if he blocked all the cannonballs we could still be burned by the explosion. This means that his energy absorption ability only lets him absorb one type of energy at a time. Whilst he's robbing the kinetic energy from your punches and bullets he's wide open to attacks of another attribute, like fire, ice or electricity."_

* * *

Gerardo rolled out of the wave of flames, singe marks covering his clothes and a few minor burns about his body. "Damn it, they figured out how to hurt me already? I can't let them keep me on the defensive."

He charged towards a group marines, right arm back as it rippled with latent energy. **"Power…"**

Suddenly two marines rushed him from both sides, swinging cutlasses at him in wide arcs. Gerardo jumped back, narrowly avoiding one of them but not quick enough to stop the other from cutting a deep gash in his left leg.

* * *

" _Secondly I noticed that he only waited until the marines outside my cell were reloading to throw a chunk of floor at them. I reckon this is because he can't absorb energy and release energy at the same time. When he's defending he's unable to attack, and when he's attacking he's wide open to a counter strike."_

* * *

Gerardo stumbled backwards, clutching at the wound in his leg, when he felt a shadow fall over him. He turned around to see Tobias looming over him, his massive fist raised high above his head.

"Let's see you block this pirate scum!" he shouted, launching a heavy punch towards Gerardo. Gerardo raised an arm to block it with power guard, but as the punch connected it still sent him skidding back a bit. Tobias grinned, he had felt some of that impact connect, and there was a slight bruising on Gerardo's arm where the punch had hit him.

* * *

" _Thirdly when he stopped the cannonball with his bare hands I noticed that it pushed him back a bit. All other attacks against him up to that point had been a flurry of smaller attacks without much power behind them, but in this case it seemed a single heavy object with a lot of force behind it was able to do something. I believe that the more force and object has, the longer it takes for Gerardo to absorb it. So while rapid weak attacks do nothing, singular powerful strikes can at least get some damage through."_

* * *

Gerardo jumped backwards, trying to put some distance between him and Tobias while he got his balance back. Too late he heard the sound of a footstep behind him, and a searing pain erupted in his side as a crouching marine, armed with a dagger, stabbed him in the lower back.

He twisted away, swiping behind him. But the marine had already retreated back into the crowd of marines surrounding him.

* * *

" _The fourth one you may have heard from Sanzel already, but his power requires conscious will to activate. If you can hit him somewhere before he can react or catch him by surprise then you can hurt him before he has a chance to absorb the energy from the attack. In the heat of battle it's likely he's unable to concentrate on all parts of his body at once or concentrate on moving."_

* * *

"Fire at will!" Commander Tobias shouted again, and the assembled marines shot at Gerardo from all angles at irregular times. **"Power Guard!"** Gerardo shouted, raising his arms into an x as the downpour of bullets fell upon him. It took all he had to focus on protecting every part of himself that he couldn't even think about moving to cover.

"Damn it!" he panted, "I'm reaching my limit. I can't hold on for much longer."

* * *

" _The final point came to me when I reflected on the name he gave his fruit, the Battery Battery fruit. Batteries can't hold an infinite amount of energy, they reach their limits eventually, and I'm willing to bet that when the amount of energy Gerardo can hold reaches its limit he'll be unable to absorb any more, and he'll be susceptible to those kinds of attacks again. The limit is probably something he can train up as he gets stronger, but if you pin him down and keep attacking he'll have to reach his limit eventually."_

* * *

Gerardo felt a slight tickling as the bullets started to exert a fraction of their force upon contact with him, his body struggling to find room to store all of the energy. The tickling became more and more painful as the bullets started to dig deeper and deeper into his skin. Some of them started to draw blood.

"Ceasefire!" Tobias shouted, silencing the storm of bullets. He watched with wicked satisfaction as Gerardo panted for breath and swayed slightly where he stood. "You're done pirate, surrender. We'd prefer to take you alive if at all possible, but we'll put more holes in you than a slice of cheese if we have to."

Gerardo glared at him, standing back into his fighting stance despite the numerous cuts and bruises across his body. "Like hell I'll give up!" he growled, drawing back his right arm as energy rippled around it. **"Power…"**

" **Breath of Life!"**

Gerardo's eyes widened in surprise as a coil of rope wrapped itself around his arms and pinned them behind his back. He felt something close around his wrists, and as he looked over his shoulder his surprise turned to horror as he saw Tio standing behind him with a cocky smirk.

"Tio? What's…"

"You must be feeling pretty drained right now." Tio cut in. "Have you ever encountered seastone handcuffs before? Just like the bars on my cell they drain the power of any devil fruit eater who wears them, and without that power of yours it's over for you."

"But why are you putting them on me? Don't tell me you…"

"That's right _captain_ , I sold you out. How do you think the marines knew your weaknesses? Knew exactly where to ambush you? Because I told them! And I led you here!"

"Twayayayaya." Tobias bellowed. "That's right little pirate, Tio struck a deal with us to send you to Impel Down in his place. Didn't Sanzel warn you not to put your trust in a man without a speck of honour in his body?"

Tio chuckled, gesturing for a couple of marines to come over. "Take him to the prison ship, the sooner he's locked up in Impel the better." He gave Gerardo a mocking wave, who continued to stare at him in shock even as the marines dragged him away. "Bye bye _captain_ , I'll send you a postcard from the next island I land on with a beach."

Tobias laughed again as Gerardo was forced up the gangplank onto the deck and escorted out of sight. "Excellent job Tio, that truly was a grand display of heartless betrayal."

"All in a day's work." Tio replied with a smirk. "Now then since our business here is concluded I'd better be off. I hear Redmeyo Island is nice this time of yea…" he was cut off as all at once the marines surrounding him pointed their guns at him. "Um… bossman? What's going on?"

"What's going on is that I'm double crossing you, I'm sure you're familiar with the concept." Tobias scoffed. "Why should I settle for just a 6,000,000 beli criminal when I can snag a 4,000,000 beli criminal as well? I'll be promoted to captain for sure for this."

Tio's eyes narrowed in anger. "That's not what we agreed Tobias!"

"Twayayayaya, pot calling the kettle black much? Why should I honour an agreement with a treacherous scumbag like you?" He raised a fat finger to point at Tio. "Take him away men, and tell Impel Down to get new cell ready."

The marines advanced on Tio, grinning viciously, when suddenly the sound of screaming and gunfire erupted from the prison ship. All heads whipped round to the ship, where a marine was being knocked into the sea by a familiar figure.

"Tio!" Gerardo shouted enthusiastically, waving his unbound hands as him. "I've taken care of the crew on board! Let's go!"

Tobias stared bug eyed at Gerardo, his mouth wide open in shock. "I- But- How? You were restrained by seastone handcuffs!"

"No." Tio replied with a smirk. "No he wasn't."

* * *

 _Gerardo wrapped himself up in a mass of brown and grey shawls whilst Tio sat cross legged on the floor of their room, shaping something in his hands._

" _Um… Tio? A little help?" Gerardo asked sheepishly as he found his legs tied together with one of the shawls. With a sigh Tio stood up and made his way over to the squirming captain. He pulled the knot at a few angles, and the shawl suddenly unravelled making Gerardo stumble and fall._

" _Ouch! Thanks Tio." Gerardo grinned as he sat back up. "What are you making over there anyway?"_

" _The handcuffs I'm going to use to capture you with."_

 _Gerardo blinked. "Eh? Handcuffs?"_

" _Aye, handcuffs." Tio replied. "I'm turning the newspaper into papier mache, then I'm going to shape it into handcuffs and paint them with the makeup kit to…"_

" _WAIT WAIT WAIT! WHY ARE YOU GOING TO CAPTURE ME!" Gerardo demanded._

" _To get you onto the ship of course."_

" _WHAT SHIP?"_

 _Tio grinned. "The marine prison ship meant to take me to Impel Down. No ship without authorisation can escape the lockdown without being blown to bits by the cannon, but that ship already has authorisation. When we sail off in it the marines manning the cannon will think the ship's just set of to take us to Impel Down, when in actual fact we'll have kicked everyone else off the ship and be escaping right under their noses."_

" _But what about the crew on board? In the time it takes us to defeat them they'll surely have called for backup."_

" _No they won't, since when they take you on board they'll be running on a skeleton crew. I made a deal with base commander Tobias last night to lead you into an ambush in exchange for my freedom, and to ensure it goes smoothly he'll pull every last available marine he has, including the crew of the prison ship, in to help him. We'll spring the ambush, you'll be captured and taken to the ship, and then I'll distract the marines while you take out the handful of marines remaining on board."_

* * *

" **Panic Party!"**

The marines turned back around just in time to see Tio breath out a mass of white mist that spread out and filtered through their ranks. As soon as it touched them their uniforms twisted into strait-jackets, sending them collapsing to the floor.

"TIO! YOU'VE BETRAYED ME!" Tobias roared.

"YOU'RE GOD DAMN RIGHT I HAVE!" Tio shouted back as he ran towards the ship. He breathed out a tendril of white smoke that sank into the ropes tying ship to the dock, making them unravel themselves. He sprinted up the gangplank, kicking it into the water behind him, and stopped in the middle of the deck.

" **Breath of Life!"** he shouted, blowing a mass of white mist around the ship. It sunk into the ropes and sails, which in turn unfolded and tied themselves in the right places to get the ship moving. Back on the docks the marine's clothes turned back to normal, and they ran to the ship. But it was too late, they howled in anger as the ship sailed away out of their reach.

"We did it!" Gerardo cheered, sweeping Tio up into a bone crushing hug. "I can't believe that actually worked!"

"Like I said, my plans always work." Tio replied with a smile. "Now please let go of me, I can't breathe."

"BASTARDS!"

The two stopped cheering as a sudden jolt rocked the ship, and they turned towards the back where a hand had grabbed onto the railing. Straining with effort, Commander Tobias hauled himself onto the ship and glared murderously at them.

"Well fuck me running! He actually made that jump!" Tio exclaimed. "Guy's stronger than I gave him credit for."

"YOU LITTLE PUNKS! YOU THINK YOU CAN ESCAPE ME!" Tobias growled, looming over them like an angry elephant. "I'LL SEND YOU BOTH TO HELL!"

He swung an enormous fist at Tio but Gerardo got in the way and blocked it head on, sliding backwards from the force. Tobias teeth were bared in a snarl, but suddenly his face scrunched up in confusion. "Hang on, that attack hit you at full force. Why didn't you absorb it?"

Gerardo shot him a sharp toothed grin, the wild look in his eyes sending a chill down Tobias' spine. "Don't you remember? At that ambush earlier you brought me to the limit of the kinetic energy I can absorb." He drew his arm back, and energy started rippling around it more intensely than ever. "Of course that just means that right now I've got a whole lotta energy to repay you with."

Tobias tried to back off, but Gerardo changed forwards with his arm practically glowing with a faint blue light. "No no wait please!" he begged. "Hold on a second we can work something out…"

Gerardo swung his fist straight into his stomach, causing a massive shockwave to ripple out across the deck. Tobias doubled over, his eyes completely white and his mouth open in a silent gasp.

" **POWER BOMB!"** Gerardo cried, and sent Tobias rocketing into the air. The commander flew higher than the birds, soaring straight over Peaco Island like a shooting star before splashing down into the sea on the other side.

The ship sailed through the gates of the port and out into the wide ocean. Gerardo and Tio started jumping about, whooping into the air and laughing over their victory.

"WE DID IT! WE REALLY DID IT!" Tio shouted joyfully, then caught himself and fixed a smug smirk back onto his face. "Not that I ever doubted it of course. My plans always work out."

"Sure, sure." Gerardo chuckled. He sat up on the railings, looking out over the ocean. "I'll be relying on those plans of yours to get us through whatever lays ahead, first mate."

"Aye captain, will do." Tio replied. "But before we go any further on this little journey of yours I need to make something clear. I have three conditions for joining this crew."

Gerardo turned to give him his full attention. "And what would they be?"

"One: I'm your crewmate, not your slave. I expect to be treated with the same respect as everyone else that'll join us, including you captain."

Gerardo grinned. "My crewmates are friends, I'd never treat any of you badly anyway."

"I'll hold you to that. Two: Never _ever_ ask me about the Mustard Island incident."

"But I…"

" _Ever!_ "

Gerardo pouted. "…Fine."

Tio chuckled. "Good." His face took on a more serious expression. "And finally, and most importantly, don't be surprised when the day comes that I betray you."

Gerardo's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean? Why would you betray me?"

Tio leaned against the mast, eyes staring out over the horizon. "What they said about me back at the base was true; I do betray everyone I ever know. The day will come eventually when I decide it's in my best interests to jump ship and hang you out to dry, and when that day comes I don't want you to say I didn't warn you."

Gerardo stared at him thoughtfully for a moment, and then smiled. "That's alright. I'll just make sure the day never comes when you feel like you want to betray me."

Tio snorted. "On your head be it. So tell me, what name are we going to sail under?"

Gerardo leaned back to look at the clouds, thinking. "Well my epithet is Renegade Macbeth, so I suppose the Renegade pirates would be good."

"The Renegades huh?" Tio stroked his chin. "Yeah, I like the sound of that."

"All right then!" Gerardo shouted, standing up on the railing and looking out to sea. "On to our next adventure! Let's go!

* * *

Lieutenant-Commander Trowl had had a rough few weeks. A few days ago his ship had been responsible for dropping off the notorious criminal Tio the traitor at Peaco island, and even after a whole week of rest and recovery he and his crew still hadn't overcome the trauma of getting into a fight with, having their stuff stolen by or just generally getting teased by some kind of inanimate object brought to life for the entire duration of the journey.

But that was all over now. With a heavy sigh Trowl pushed those memories to the back of his mind and focused on the documents spread out before him.

"Lieutenant Sir!"

Trowl looked up from his documents as a marine hurriedly barged his way into his office.

"What is it ensign?"

"There's a ship sighted port side, a South Blue Trading Company vessel by the looks of it. It seems to be abandoned."

With a grunt Trowl rose from his desk. "Tell all men their orders are to pull up alongside it. We'll see if we can identify any signs of the crew."

A few minutes later the marine ship was tied up to the abandoned one and Trowl led a group of men on board. There were no signs of life about, not a single article of clothing or sign of a struggle. It was as if the crew had simply vanished.

"Damn it! This isn't another bunch of disappearances is it?" he muttered. "Surely there must be someone alive on this ship."

"You'd be right about that."

Trowl and his men jumped at the sound of a monotone voice from above them and looked up to see a figure standing at the top of the crow's nest. He was a young man dressed head to toe in black; a black V-neck shirt under a black long sleeved over-shirt with a very dark grey pair of chinos and black plimsolls, which clashed with his pale skin. His raven hair was shaggy and shoulder length, and from behind his fringe a pair of blood red eyes stared down at them, their dangerous glint highlighted by the small scar on his left cheek.

"The only one alive on this ship is supposed to be me. Then you guys showed up and made a mess of things." A pair of rope darts slipped out of his sleeves. "It's ok though, this is a problem I can easily solve."

The last thing the crew ever saw was the figure flickering, disappearing from view. Then everything went black.

* * *

 _And there we go, the adventure on Peaco Island is finished. I hope you guys like the first addition to the crew, Tio may not be strong but his brains and versatile devil's fruit are going to be a major factor keeping the Renegade Pirates afloat in upcoming adventures._

 _Speaking of which do you like the name I chose for Gerardo and his crew? It was given to him because of warden Mercet's report after the Sanning Quarry arc, since he asked Gerardo if he was some kind of renegade. And who do you think the figure in black at the end could be? I'll tell you this, he'll play an important role in events to come._

 **Fun Fact:** Tio never eats very much, and is an incredibly fussy eater at that. Anything not sweet tasting he avoids like the plague.


End file.
